John Neal’s excellent book “Portland Illustrated” gives a fascinating account of the great fire that leveled much of Portland in 1866.
Neal describes how the fire quickly consumed some building materials, leaving other materials intact. Marble columns proved the weakest, fracturing into large, heavy pieces, and collapsing. The dark red granite quarried in New Hampshire and Quincy, Mass., was nearly as fragile, lasting only a little longer. The most durable was Kennebunk granite, a lighter shade of granite that resisted the hottest flame. After the conflagration, builders eager to find the best of all building materials, fired blocks of Kennebunk granite in blazing furnaces then heaved them into the frigid waters of Casco Bay. The builders found that the granite neither cracked nor crumbled, prompting one prominent architect to say he had now found the world’s best building material.
One thing endures longer than Kennebec granite and that is a true idea. A true idea moves quietly and invisibly, like light or the wind; and as it moves from person to person, it grows in power each time it lodges in a sympathetic heart. Since a true idea is never confined to a single place or time, it cannot be embargoed or boycotted. Since it is by definition unchangeable, it cannot be stamped out or extinguished. The harder men try to cover an idea with falsehood and error, the brighter it shines.
The truth about marriage is just such an idea. The notion that homosexual marriage is normal, and even desirable, has spread quickly, striking deep roots in our society. But like every false and deceptive notion, like every harmful and pernicious practice, the idea of homosexual marriage will also prove fleeting. I note that the greatest writers and thinkers have compared sexual immorality and intemperance to a ravaging fire.
That is why I am confident we will win our battle for the traditional definition of marriage.
Recently, I was present at a graduation ceremony in Augusta also attended by Gov. John Baldacci. I was saddened to hear a wonderful young valedictorian speak favorably of homosexual marriage. I believe she was merely repeating what she thought was a popular opinion. Perhaps her misperception was reinforced by what she heard from her teachers and the presence of the governor. I was saddened because many of the young people in the audience have been deeply scandalized by adults who do, in fact, know better.
Gov. Baldacci is, after all, the top law enforcement officer in our state. He originally opposed same-sex marriage, but has since changed his opinion for the sake of political expediency. The real push for homosexual marriage in Maine came from the homosexual rights movement and their spokesman in the Legislature, Sen. Larry Bliss. It was Bliss who signed the law for the Maine Senate; and it was Bliss who was briefly made president of the Maine Senate for the purpose of passing the homosexual marriage bill.
The homosexual marriage bill was not the only bad bill considered by the Legislature this session. Legislators considered bills to ease the restrictions on marijuana possession and to allow illegal aliens to vote in local elections. The Legislature passed a law — without a public hearing — that expands the sales tax to include, among other things, car repair labor.
The newly enacted laws will be bound in several heavy volumes, each more than an inch thick. In the matter of the definition of marriage, the single most important issue ever to confront the people of Maine, the Legislature failed miserably. Homosexual marriage not only contradicts common sense, it contravenes every existing law, human or divine, on the subject of marriage. An appropriate term for this sad state of affairs is, I think, “lawlessness in high places.”
The Maine Constitution gives the people of Maine the power to initiate or overturn any law in a referendum and petition process. Under our Constitution, we have the power to repeal any ill-advised law. I personally have led three such successful petition drives. My ultimate goal was to stop the threat posed by homosexual marriage, which I and many others saw as undermining the institution of marriage and the family. A referendum drive is now under way to overturn the homosexual marriage law.
I have no doubt that the traditional definition of marriage will endure much longer than the granite used to build our own state capitol. But it will be up to the people of Maine to see that the petition drive is successful, and without their participation, this is far from a foregone conclusion. I urge every friend of the institution of marriage and the family to do their utmost to help with the current petition drive.
Michael S. Heath is executive director of the Maine Family Policy Council.