Dear Editor:
The editorial section of the News Tribune is always a popular read and rightfully so as it provides an approach to current events from the perspective of the populace and the approach to news therein is spiked with subjective opinion and emotion. Morality seems to be a common topic within the opinion letters and while the subject of morality is relevant it is not an objective standard of perception which is shared as a consensus reality among our city's, state's nor country's collective.
In determining our laws we are not obliged to operate within the moral framework of an outspoken majority. The government does not have the imperative to maintain a status quo of relativistic standards. In fact, the government has the imperative to protect the non-status quo within the majority. This is exactly why the United States is not a true democracy, rather we are a republic.
Within a true democracy the majority opinion rules the land and you have a lynch-mob mentality wherein the rights, opinions and freedoms of the minority are quickly disposed of.
Thankfully our forefathers had the foresight to mitigate this terrible form of governance. Morality can be defined as the conduct that is acceptable within the framework of a particular society. Its expression varies from one culture to the next. It is not a product of religious texts as history and cultural disparity of moral standards demonstrates. Morality is a product of societal evolution. When human beings left their lives of self-isolation and discovered the benefit of congregating as tribes it became quickly apparent that members of the shared society could not live for only themselves any longer. In order to preserve the integrity of the society standards of behavior had to be developed and enforced.
As humanity has progressed through varying societal constructs (tribalism, feudalism, monarchies, democracy, communism, etc) the moral ideology has evolved simultaneously. It is important to learn from previous societal standards of morality, commerce, governance, etc. but we are not beholden to these previous standards when they subvert our present evolutionary process.