April has so far been cold and chilly,
with icy showers that knocked down daffodils'
efforts to show off their blooms.
The people of Indiana rose up in furor this past
week, when the Governor, a man who achieved the
office with backing from a narrow segment
of the state's population, radically conservative
and hell-bent on bending the state government
to suit their interpretation(s)
of the Bible -- never mind the ol' "separation
of church and state" bugaboo.
Last year, the state legislators' efforts to enact
a ban on same-sex marriages was knocked down
by the Supreme Court. In a snit of revenge,
a couple of those legislators wrote what is commonly called
widely regarded as an effort to allow discrimination
on grounds of "religious conviction" against
members of the LBGT community.
Thirty legal professors told him it was a bad law.
Several state corporations advised him that, never mind
just doing business, they would have difficulty
recruiting the best people for their businesses.
Travel and tourism would suffer.
Saying it was "no different" than a similar federal law
passed in 1993, Pence insisted he would sign it. And did.
With the NCAA Final Four basketball tourney
being held in Indianapolis this year, the commercial
gloss was off the prestige of that event, and eyes were
focused instead on the efforts of a minority
of tawdry folks who want to keep us all mired in
their prejudices and fears.
After days of bad press and downright acrimony,
Pence finally got the message and requested
that the law be fixed. A patch was written and passed
before the week was up. The governor had acted
solely for benefit of the small-minded constituency
he was used to serving as a Senator, and suffered the
outrage of a more reasonable, tolerant, and practical
general population. He signed the paper.
Then left town.
With the promise of some wonderful college
basketball to be played here, he decided he needed
to take care of some business in Europe.
4 comments:
Small minded, narrow minded... it is a shame that some politicians pander to that constituency. This is a matter of civil rights, period, and it's the right thing to do.
Absolutely, William.
and...he's bringing Tony Bennett back, hopefully thatis the last thing he needs to do to end his reign.
Oh, Lin, not *the* Tony-fucking-Bennett? At first I was hoping you were referring to the elderly singer, but realized, sadly, you were not.
Perhaps, bringing that sleazy dick back will be, hopefully, just *the thing* Pence needs to do to end his career.
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