The strawberry and the Banana

Does a Strawberry have the Right to be Called a Banana and if not is it Discrimination?

By
JoAnn Gestson

Can a word that is a fact be redefined to be more “inclusive” and still retain its meaning?  When it comes to redefining words such as marriage, what is right? What is fair? What is best for our society, for children? Much of the language is confusing…equality, rights, discrimination, racism, bigotry, hate, anti-gay and LOVE!

Whenever any word is defined it must exclude other things or else it means everything. For example when I define the word banana—an elongated yellow thick skinned fruit containing creamy soft sweet flesh that means that all other fruits are excluded. By excluding other things we are also saying what a  banana is not. It is a fact that a banana is not a strawberry, an orange, or an apple.

But what if the strawberry which is red inside and out and has a different shape demands that the word banana be redefined to include strawberries too because God loves all fruit and created all to be equal and not including strawberries in the definition of banana is discrimination. This of course would cause much confusion when one is sent to the super market to buy bananas.

We must logically come to the conclusion that a strawberry can never be a banana no matter how much it wishes to be one, and it is not because bananas hate strawberries, are anti-strawberry or because they are not equally important; it is simply because they are different and not the same. It has nothing to do with rights, equality, love or hate but everything to do with facts.

Now let us take a closer look at the definition of the word marry. What does it mean to marry something? The word union is included which means that the two become one. If we marry two different flavored glasses of wine we pour them into the same glass and the flavors of the two mix, diffuse and birth is given to one new flavor. It is the combination of the two different wines married that makes the new flavor. For anything to marry they must be different. This term marry is often used when speaking of two different foods-- never the same two foods. Some foods marry well and others not so well but they are always different never the same. Same-sex marriage is an oxymoron, self contradictory.

What happens when a man and woman marry? The two become one. Man is made to give and woman to receive they are different but complementary. The sperm and the egg meet and two become one flesh in their offspring, their children. This is truly what marriage is --a one man and one woman union and the children begotten from that union. It is the family! It is how family is made--how it has been made and understood for the past 2000 years in every culture and society known to man. No matter how much two men or two women want to call their relationship marriage it never can be because they can never become one in the flesh. They are physically unable to marry because they are the same not different. They have no potential to produce a child together; to become one in their offspring.

No, protecting the definition of marriage is not hate, anti gay, discrimination, racist or bigotry. Marriage is a fact and changing the definition of marriage to include something that it never can be is confusing; it makes no sense. All thirty one states that have had the opportunity to vote on the definition of marriage have kept and protected its meaning as being between one man and one woman. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie recently changed the title of the marriage amendment wording in an attempt to confuse people when they go to vote. He renamed the marriage amendment to "Limiting The Status Of Marriage To Opposite Sex Couples." It had been called "Recognition of marriage solely between one man and one woman."

It is for the good of children and society that government recognizes the importance of supporting and giving special benefits to those who marry. Children need food, clothing, education, shelter, medical, and dental, these are expensive thus the government gives special benefits to married persons to help care for their children. Our children are the next generation, the future of our society and how they are raised greatly affects society. Research shows time and time again that children’s needs are best met in a low conflict environment by the mother and father that brought them into this world.