I Want To Be More Open About A Recent Comment I Just Put Up

10:41 The level of hate, bigotry and downright nastiness of the people on this site is not normal.

anonymous 10:55, so your saying being gay is "normal"?

I always thought "normal" was something that is acceptable in society.

Look, one of the reasons why we publish such information IS TO SEE if in fact things/situations like this are in fact "normal".

Like what we say or do, or not, the comments do really speak for themselves. I believe this is exactly how we find out if in fact it is "normal" or not.

The unfortunate part about what I do here is that the people that read COMMENTS always seem to THINK that this is MY opinion. Let me simply say this. When it is MY opinion, my name is on it, just like this one.

Here's the other thing about it. I see the hits we get each and every day. Salisbury News is ALWAYS growing. We do NOT sink to lower levels. So those of you who say I'll never be back or those who say they never come here are full of you know what.

Like ANY business out there, some days we publish articles that you agree with and some days we do not. HOWEVER, every day the same, (if not more) people come to this Site to see what's going on in our communities or around the world.

My closest and oldest personal friend is gay and I love him like a Brother and always will. We have argued about this for 40 years now, yes, I said 40 years. We agree to disagree on issues but I have no hate towards gay people whatsoever. Do I disagree with their lifestyle, yes. Do I understand it, no. I was raised in the Catholic Church and if I'm old school, well, I have a flaw, I guess, as most of us do in life. At least I'm willing to stand up for what I believe in. BUT, this does not mean I hate someone because they believe differently.

I also believe in life and experience that we as a society today do NOT know how to agree to disagree and quite frankly that is extremely unfortunate. We ALL have a place in society and I do NOT believe those who are let's say different than the "normal" should be an outcast. That being said, when the gay society chooses to lash out at someone with a Christian belief, they should be prepared and ACCEPT what the "normal" society does in fact believe.

In this case it would seem the gay people and others who support their beliefs are the ones who actually HATE when others do not support THEM.

WE can ALL get along, and we should. However, when politicians like O'Malley, (for example) shove new laws down our throats when the majority does NOT support him, we have the right to stand our ground and disagree. God Forbid we stand firm against Gay Marriage. God Forbid us bad guys actually challenge the Governor and put such a thing on referendum.

This still is America and I personally thank God we have the opportunity in this great country to be allowed such an opportunity to disagree.

In time we'll see what the outcome is in Maryland as a society and see where this brings us.

We should have a healthy debate on this issue. The personal attacks are unfortunate but what would it say about this Blog IF we were to censor ALL the comments to favor ONE SIDE?

That being said, don't hate me personally simply because we publish comments that disagree with you. Believe me, there are tens of thousands of comments we publish that I personally do NOT agree with.

What I have come to learn over all these years is that there is nowhere else, (at least on the Shore, if not the state) in which you can openly express your thoughts and opinions in such volume. You can look around the entire Internet and there are very few Blogs and MSM outlets that come anywhere close to the volume of comments we produce on a daily basis. Of course we're not going to all agree on what is said and done but one thing is for sure, each and every one of you are more educated on how we feel as a society and or as to what is "normal" or not.

In SOME states it is "normal" and legal to have more than one Wife. In MOST states, it is not. At this point in time it is not "normal" for two men or two women to marry. However, there are no laws stating they can't live together. How do many of you feel about a man living with more than one woman? There are NO laws against that, that I'm aware of. It seems this MARRIAGE thing is blown way out of hand.

The laws and rules are flawed, no question about it.

Let us together as a society decide what is right and what is wrong. Do NOT shove it down our throats as this is NOT the American way. IF gay marriage is decided by all society to be right and acceptable, then that will become law and or "normal". Until then, stop the hate on BOTH sides.