Readers React: The American spirit is alive -- in Ireland

To the editor: Ireland’s minister for health called his country’s referendum on same-sex marriage “a beacon, a light to the rest of the world, of liberty and equality.” (“Ireland is first country to legalize same-sex marriage in popular vote,” May 23)

There was a time when such language was more commonly associated with the good old USA, but now it seems that defending the status quo is the highest aspiration of many folks on this side of the Atlantic.

With our Memorial Day having come on the heels of the Irish election, perhaps this is a good time to contemplate exactly what so many Americans felt was worth a sacrifice — and I don’t think it was the defense of an American dream that has sadly come to be equated with overconsumption of all we can get our hands on.

Let us hope that emerald beacon of freedom can be reflected by our own invigorated rainbow of liberation, with a brilliance that reminds us all of what it really means to be an American.

Brian Bennett, La Verne

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