Loving hands had hung the rafters, painted the shutters, and meticulously carved the sunburst pattern above the door. Generations of Mainers had paused by that small, modest house on Fore Street in Portland to pause and reflect a while - for it was the birthplace of America's greatest poet, Longfellow.
Longfellow's birthplace has long since vanished, along with many other beautiful buildings in Portland. We Mainers cling to our past, because ours is a heritage of light, order, and beauty. For that reason, I can say with absolute certainty that no true Mainer ever defaced such a building with pen or paint.
Those who stroll through the streets of Portland today will see many buildings marred with graffiti. Five years ago it was rare. At first, there were a few sporadic cases, a solitary scrawl on a backstreet wall. Now graffiti is in every cross street and lane, and even in the Old Port, the most beautiful part of the city.
By now many readers are wondering why I am so concerned about the plague of graffiti in our cities. I am concerned because there is a close parallel between graffiti and same sex marriage. Both are warning signs that our society is very sick indeed, and may be entering its final crisis.
Graffiti was once called vandalism, named for the barbarian hordes which sacked Rome. Similarly, same sex marriage was once called perversion, a term which literally means turning away from the truth. Today same sex marriage is called a "civil right" a misperception spread by gay radicals, with the help of the liberal establishment. In our politically-correct society, we do not use the words 'vandalism' or 'perversion,' because we do not want to offend those in positions of power and authority.
Yet the truth remains - graffiti can never be art. In fact, graffiti performs the opposite function of art. Unlike art, which uplifts and ennobles the viewer, graffiti obscures and effaces what is noble in man, and in the process, demoralizes a city.
Similarly, same sex marriage performs the opposite function of marriage. Where marriage is for procreation and the education of children, same sex marriage produces no children, and misleads the young regarding the most basic fact of marriage, that marriage is between one man and one woman. For that reason, same sex marriage will eventually destabilize society, just as true marriage shores up and strengthens society.
Writing left on a wall is intended to have a public meaning. The classic example of a message written on a wall occurs in the Book of Daniel in the Bible, in the account of Belshazzar's Feast. Belshazzar was a wealthy prince of Babylon who sat down to enjoy a carefree evening of feasting and carousing. Instead, he broke into a cold sweat, and his legs began to tremble, when he saw a ghostly finger trace out the words "Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin." Iin modern-day English this means "Dollars and quarters, dollars and quarters…you have been weighed in the balance, and you came up short." These words were a final sentence passed by God on a kingdom obsessed with greed, luxury, power, and sexual immorality. These same words apply to our society. But it is not a ghostly finger which scrawls out our fate for all to see.
Instead, our fateful message is being scrawled out by those who live in the shadows. They are putting the rest of us on notice that many of our fellow citizens do not believe in the sanctity and inviolability of any law, human or divine. It is a dire message indeed, one that is all the more frightening because the vandals are merely echoing a message received from men and women in positions of power. Their lawless act of destruction finds a close counterpart in an ill-advised law which seeks to overthrow traditional marriage. In the end, this message of lawlessness and obstinate perversion will prove to be our undoing. It is, as it were, our own handwriting on the wall.
