Pensive

The attempt by Republican Governor Mike Pence of Indiana to eradicate a group's civil libertarian rights through the passage of the so called "Religious Freedom Act" which he signed into law fooled few. Who in this nation is denied the ability to believe as one chooses? No one is denied that right. Those believers do not, however, have the right to use their religious belief as a projectile aimed at denying human rights to others. Those attempts by Republicans at returning to another era of Jim Crow, outlawed by the Court decades ago, show us how important elections are. Elections matter as black lives matter, as Hispanic lives matter, as women's lives matter and as homosexual's lives matter. Mike Pence stammering no answer answer during the ABC interview by George Stephanopoulos proved he could not tell the truth. It was a simple question Stephanopoulous posed: Is the Indiana Religious Freedom Law aimed at allowing businesses to discriminate against homosexuals? He could not answer except with political gobbledygook because the simple answer is, of course, yes!

Those of us who bathe in the glow of so many civil liberties wins are knocked back on our heels again by the hammer of tyranny’s reality. The religious liberty laws are the latest back door tool of choice for religious zealots across the nation as the Court soon may allow, one hopes, the ability of everyone to marry if they choose. The hateful Republican Party with its large composition of religious crack pots is now drunk with power. Gerrymandered districts in combination with Democrats, progressives, minorities and the young not voting in off-year elections have placed many state houses and even the Congress in the treacherous unyielding rightwing extremist and obstructionist grasp. This should serve as a lesson. When progressives, Democrats, liberals and other allies who are the majority do not vote it allows the usurpation of power by a minority of Republican right wing radicals who not only do not care for the hard fought for rights of those in this nation who once had no rights but, in fact, want to roll those rights back.

We are heartened by those legions of corporations and individuals who are making Mr. Pence’s job, as he says, very difficult and laud them for supporting the rights of minorities to own the same rights that the majority has taken for granted. Big business Walmart and small business enterprises deserve praise and support when they help all of us defeat injustice. Signs in businesses saying “We serve everyone” give me hope. We should support businesses and states that support human rights and boycott those which do not.

Science and the truth it delivers after centuries of evolving study cannot be denied. The Bible was wrong when it thought the earth was the center of the universe, wrong when it thought disease was brought on by a god’s wrath and it is just as wrong when it ostracizes or stones to death, through Deuteronomy’s ignorance, those whose affectational preference is DNA determined. The Bible knew nothing about astronomy, nothing of the archeologically discovered truths of man's evolutionary origin and certainly knew nothing about DNA. Whether it is the absolute truth of evolution or the truth of what the physicians of the American Psychiatric Association have determined that homosexuality is normal for those who feel it, ancient beliefs are shredded because they are based upon superstition and myth instead of science-based fact.

Most who label themselves LGBT know that their affectational preference began well before they even had a conceptualization of society's dastardly ostracism and punishment for it. Governor Pence and the ridiculous minions at his side during the signing of the Religious Freedom bill are consummately wrong. Homosexuality when it occurs is woven into a plethora of one’s genetic code as tightly as the genes that determine the color of one’s eyes. Shame on Governor Pence for showing no pensive thought before he signed the ignorant “Religious Freedom” bill, shame on Indiana for electing medieval monstrosities and shame on our nation if it does not bestow on one minority the ability to enjoy the same rights as everyone else.