Throughout time, each society determines its own mores and customs. With our world population approaching seven billion people, adopting same-sex marriage in Maryland might be a good idea. From an evolutionary standpoint and over a relatively short period of time, we would no longer have to concern ourselves with overcrowding or feeding our population. At the conclusion of this time and thanks to same-sex marriage, we would no longer exist.
Over five thousand years, various societies throughout the world have determined that a man and a woman are best suited, sanctioned by and through the institution of marriage, to carry on the ultimate function of civilization, which is, procreation of the human species. Only a man and a woman can do this. This is as plain as the nose on your face.
Instead of indulging the egocentrism that seems to permeate our current society of "Me . . . me . . . me" and "My rights . . . my rights . . . my rights," we should consider ways to enhance and further support the institution of marriage between a man and a woman rather than redefining or subverting it into oblivion on behalf of some self-serving utopian fallacy.
Erskine E. Traynham Jr.
Laurel