The State's Supreme Judicial Court ruled last week that to deny gay and lesbian people the right to wed violates their constitutional rights to equal protection under the law.

"The benefits accessible only by way of a marriage license are enormous, touching nearly every aspect of life and death," the court said in its decision. "The marriage ban works a deep and scarring hardship on a very real segment of the community for no rational reason. Limiting the protections, benefits and obligations of civil marriage to opposite-sex couples violates the basic premises of individual liberty and equality under law protected by the Massachusetts Constitution."

The court ruling is certain to attract the haters among us, who can be expected to raise the usual arguments over the "sanctity of marriage." But it should be noted that it's not marriage that's "sacred." Marriages among good people break up all the time; divorces are commonplace. For those who believe that matrimony is a sacrament, nothing in the court order mandates any church to accede to the civil marriage ruling.

The governor and the Legislature once again have failed to deal with an injustice, and yielded the power to the courts. The court has given our political leaders 180 days to devise laws which protect the rights of same-sex couples.

It is time to right the wrongs. Our legislators need to deal with this issue, and then move on.

-Edward Forry

A suspicious mid-day fire in a state-owned building along the Neponset River waterfront has left neighbors in the Cedar Grove neighborhood very uneasy.

The November 17 blaze broke out at about 2 p.m. in a building left abandoned when the state acquired the property which once housed the Schlager auto body and towing company. The property has sat vacant for over a year, and is now under the nominal control of the agency once called the MDC. It has never been secured, and has become a haven for vagrants and an increasing number of local young people. Over the summer, there were reports that some young people were living in the building and using the property for drugs.

This year, in one of his first official acts as the new governor, Bain and Company's Mitt Romney dismantled the MDC, and folded its duties into the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR.)

But so far, that agency seems understaffed and woefully disorganized. About all that the DCR seems to have done with the Neponset River property is ignore it, and neighbors have been fearful that the neglected parcel is a hazard in the neighborhood.

The blaze last week broke out just days after a wind-swept conflagration destroyed an old mill complex and more than a dozen adjacent homes in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Local residents have long feared a similar scenario at the state-owned property, and one resident pointed out the near proximity of the Keystone Apartments, a 251-unit senior citizen complex which abuts the DCR's site. Had the blaze occurred just three days earlier, at the height of a wind storm, the potential for tragedy would have been great.

Neighbors in the Cedar Grove neighborhood are breathing a sigh of relief this week, while keeping a wary eye out on Romney and his new downsized agency.

So far in our neighborhood, the only thing the DCR seems to have conserved is a dilapidated building, and the only recreation it has provided is for arsonists.

-Ed Forry