OPINION:
It was Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, New York Democrat, who coined the phrase “defining deviancy down” in 1993. This was simply a way of describing, quite frankly and accurately, how aberrant behavior becomes less aberrant the more widespread and acceptable it becomes.
One might even call this phenomenon psychological evolution, or what liberals mean when they say, “Move on.”
But deviancy takes time. It took time for the Nazis to kill 6 million Jews, for terrorists to plan and fly airplanes into the heart of the financial district in Manhattan. It is taking time for rogue nations to construct an atomic weapon capable of annihilating an entire country. In this age, who gets to define deviancy? Perhaps Moynihan was merely prejudiced.
There was once a time when illegal immigrants were called illegal, marriage meant a wedding of one man and one woman and a stigma was attached to having a baby out of wedlock.
Maybe if illegal aliens were still considered criminals and marriage was still a sacred contract between one man and one woman, we would have secure borders, fewer illegitimate children and fewer deviants.
JOE PRUSSING
Port St. Lucie, Fla.
