Letters to the editor for Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013

There are rules to marriage

In response to Emily Mason’s letter on Sept. 25, you’ve made valid points and I agree with you on two accounts: That the church and state should not pursue control of a person’s personal life and that violence and hatred toward homosexuals is condescendingly wrong. However, the ice cream analogy fails. Morals are not open to preference of opinion. If they were, Hitler could easily be written off for his “opinions.” Judges, priests, and rabbis have the right to religious freedom by declining to marry a sexually deviant couple.

I respect your thoughts. I also encourage you to consider the fact that the church is, to a considerable extent, concerned with making sure that people know the eternal consequences of their choices before God. Any sin can be forgiven for those who ask, yet accountability is key. Sexual deviance is not sexual liberation. It is also wrong and condescending for supporters of gay rights to troll and protest the right to free speech by the religious. How can a same-sex couple represent the diversity of different entities (in this case gender) bonded in unity? The same arguments in support of gay marriage can also be applied to a person who wants to marry a relative.

Everything must adhere to a design in order to function properly and that includes the family. You can have a plethora of colors and kinds of material to build a home, but it still has to adhere to the laws of physics and architecture for stability.

Brittany Corbridge

Carson City

Reid doesn’t care about voters

I tried to contact Sen. Reid by email on Oct. 1, but his contact page told me that the senator was unable to take messages because of the shutdown. So I thought, “Well, I will just call his Carson City office and leave a message,” but I got the same story there. Most folks would have given up, but my stubborn Swedish heritage compelled me to press on and call the Washington office, and yes, I got the same message.

Sen. Reid’s website states, “Everything I do as your senator in Washington is shaped by your input. Hearing from Nevadans like you ensures that everyone has a voice and that Washington addresses Nevada’s needs.” Yeah, right.

I called Dean Heller’s office in Reno expecting to get the same sorry message, but to my surprise a real live person answered the phone and she told me she would be happy to give Sen. Heller my message. Imagine that.

So in this time of crisis, I can’t send a message to Harry Reid, our senior Nevada senator and the “majority leader,” but the junior senator from Nevada has a staff member answering phones in his office. I wonder which senator is really looking out for Nevadans?

Scott E. Soderstrom

Carson City