Letter: Don't clutter the Constitution

To the Editor:

“We the people in order to form a more perfect union … insure domestic tranquility … secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity… .” What elegant language to show us what a constitution should be.

Too bad our state legislators want to clutter up our Minnesota Constitution with amendments to limit the “blessings of liberty” to all of us. It seems they were more concerned with not being on the record as voting either way on these issues than they were with doing their jobs and legislating. Could the election have anything to do with that?

Who can vote? The wording of this proposed amendment is the strongest and most restricting of all the states that have passed such an amendment. I would love to see every reasonable effort made to get more people to vote — not fewer.

Do we really have a problem in Minnesota? I would rather see 10 “bad” votes get counted than have one legitimate voter kept away. I am sure that if this passes there will definitely be fewer votes cast. That will be the number of people who weren’t able to meet the requirements — new voters and old or those with special circumstances. In the meantime, we would have to foot the big bill for this system.

Who can marry? The government certainly should not be in the marriage business. No one should have the right to tell another who to marry or not to marry.

Those who are for this amendment, please don’t say it is for the children. They are very flexible and don’t see problems at a very young age without the “help” of their elders.

What could be more limiting to the vert basic and personal choices we should all be able to make for ourselves than these two proposed amendments.

Please vote “no” in November, but most of all, please vote!

Colleen Nelson

Lake City

Tags: opinion, letters