The wisdom of the aged
Re “Make it a gay-old time,” Opinion, May 30
Somebody should enlighten Joel Stein on the subject of “gay culture.” He inadvertently suggests that California’s non-senior population is wiser and more in tune with the facts of life than the writers of the Bible. He asks us old folks to vote against our collective “wisdom and experience” and embrace same-sex marriage.
Does Stein seriously believe that same-sex “romance” is a relatively recent cultural phenomenon or overnight sensation? Is that why it has been condemned in Scripture for thousands of years?
Perhaps Stein and much of the under-50 crowd are comfortable “voting against” the word of God, but many of us older characters feel that’s asking just a bit too much.
Jim Roberts
La Mirada
I resent Stein’s denigration of senior citizens: “I’m asking you, at least while you’re in the voting booth in November for those five minutes -- or in some of your cases, 10 to 15 minutes with the help of a volunteer -- to pretend you’re cool with gays.”
Stein asks us to give up our moral convictions and standards because he thinks it is the “cool” thing to do. How ignorant and immature Stein’s thinking is. Those moral and ethical standards are what has made this country great.
Betty Holden
Huntington Beach
Stein definitely has me pegged. Open “gayness” is really hard for many of us to accept. Stein’s column made me chuckle.
Why do I feel so dang guilty? I feel like a guy watching the gay pride parade saying to myself, “This is really queer,” while everybody else is cheering. But something deep in my conscience truly bothers me about all this celebration.
For a lot of us, it’s like fooling around with Mother Nature. Yeah, it seems harmless now, but what are the long-term consequences?
This train left the station in the 1960s. It’s just a matter of time before the country adopts the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) doctrine as a foundational building block of American culture.
It’s a brave new world or, maybe, utterly naive and foolish. Only time will tell. I’m going with my gut instincts and sticking with my wisdom and experience on this one.
Sean Ragan
Camarillo
