GAY MARRIAGE

Reader disagrees with letter writer

I'd like to respond to Mynra Flynn's letter regarding the recent decision to allow gay marriage in the State of Washington.

Flynn objects to the governor "ignoring what we, the voters of this state have voted for" and refers back to a principle that she feels our nation is supposed to be living under "government of the people, by the people, for the people," oddly enough a phrase not taken from the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, but from Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address."

If Flynn is such a fan of Lincoln's ideas, she should recognize the irony in using his words as justification for denying certain rights to some of the population that are readily available to the rest. I can't speak for Lincoln, but I feel that as a champion of the oppressed, he would have approved of what Gov. Gregoire has done.

I'd like to counter Flynn's quote from Lincoln with another quote, "Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities."

Who could have spouted this liberal claptrap? That would be the poster child for the Tea Party Movement, Ayn Rand. Rand's quote makes it clear that sometimes good governments must intervene when the will of the people constitutes an attack on individual rights.

Steve Close

Moses Lake