Letter: ‘8’ will enrich community dialogue

To the Editor:

We are so glad that this year’s Diversity Festival will include the Sept. 8 production of the play “8,” a collaborative effort with Soapbox Players, the Sheldon Theater and Red Wing Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. This courtroom drama is taken from the public trial in the U.S. District Court fight to overturn California’s Proposition 8 involving same-sex couples.

We welcome this chance to hear both sides of argument about this question. We need to understand more about why the option to marry is so important to all citizens in our community as we approach election day this November.

The proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage would add a heavy layer of legalized discrimination in Minnesota that already has a law against same-sex marriage.

Plan to attend “8” with your friends and families to enrich your own thinking and conversations together.

Plus you will see Dick in his stage debut as Judge Walker, the part played by Brad Pitt in the California premier.

If you can’t be at the Sheldon production, note that “8” plays in Rochester Sept. 15 (7 p.m. at Peace United Church of Christ) and in Zumbrota Sept. 166 (3 p.m. at State Theater).

As newcomers to Red Wing (we retired here four years ago from northeast Iowa), we are delighted to get to know local people who care so much about what “Minnesota Nice” really means. We know that all of our family is welcome here, though we wish it were possible for all of them to be married here, too.

Join us at “8.”

The Rev. Richard and Carol Eick

Red Wing

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