Names Defined
If I have a dog, but would rather have a cat, I could just decide to call my dog a cat. There is no law against that. It's a free country.
Even if I convince all my friends, plus a million other people, to call my dog a cat, that doesn't make it so. Marriage has been defined for thousands of years as the union of a man and a woman.
Calling the union of two men or two women marriage does not make it so. But we know these unions are happening and will continue to happen, so it should have its own name.
The term that comes to mind is "Civil Union." There are probably others better than that.
It should be the responsibility of Congress to decide the name and the rules and regulations that go with it, similar to those that go with marriage.
We can keep calling a dog a cat but that will never make it so. It is time to call same sex union by its own appropriate name.
Bill Keller
Bella Vista
Editorial on 07/29/2015