It is with great joy and sadness that I and my partner of 24 years (married two), write to express our thanks to the Massachusetts Legislature for defeating yet another attempt to write hatred and discrimination into our Constitution. The joy is for the courage and strength it took for them to defeat the proposed amendment. We spent some of our day outside the State House on Nov. 9, and it is disturbing that so much hate can be spewed in the name of God.
The sadness comes from the fact that so much time, energy and financial resources have and continue to be spent in keeping discrimination out of our Constitution. I can only imagine the amount of good those God-fearing religious souls could accomplish if they would focus their energy on, say: education, child neglect, domestic abuse and youth/gang violence. Surely, if they were truly concerned with family values, these would be at the top of their agenda.
Michael Keenan
Jamaica Plain