Is it Bemidji letter-to-the-editor week? Yesterday, I blogged about a letter from Mary Hoody in which she shares her reasons for voting NO. Today, I discovered this gem from Robert Saxton on the Star Tribune. According to the quick bio at the end of the letter, Saxton is a writer from Bemidji.

Saxton includes satire and charm in his letter. In a series of bullets he talks about what a yes vote will not do (e.g., it will not stop people from being gay, it won’t stop them from bearing or adopting children, it won’t improve your own marriage, etc.)

He then goes on to talk about what a yes vote will do:

Here, then, is what a yes vote will do: It will make sure that these families can never share health insurance. Or have guaranteed hospital visitation rights. Or allow their estates to automatically go to one another in case of death. Or buy a family fishing license. Or a joint college savings account. The list goes on.

Same-sex couples are denied more than 515 state rights that pertain to married couples and 1,100 federal ones; a yes vote will make that denial a permanent part of the Minnesota Constitution. That’s it. So, we can talk about defending marriage and values until the cows come home. The only thing this amendment will do is make a very long list of legal and financial benefits forever unattainable for these families.

Read Saxton’s entire letter on the Star Trib. Keep those Vote NO letters coming, Bemidji residents! ;)