NC vs. TN: A Race to the Bottom

Last month I wrote about how Tennessee welcomes you unless you're gay, poor, or have special needs. I related how I was too embarrassed to tell people where I was from and didn't mind making something up - Boston, Denver, Seattle - anywhere but here.

That was before I started paying attention to what was happening in our neighbor state to the east of us. I used to think North Carolina ceded us back to the Union because they simply didn't like us but it turns out we have more in common than just our hills and stills.

There's a whole lot of shaking going on. Both states are trembling with fear, ignorance, loathing and God's word. One would be justified in thinking the two states are racing to see which one will reenter the 18th century first.

Take a moment to scan these summaries of what's happening in North Carolina and Tennessee. There's more in this mirror image than just the widths of the two states and there's more at stake than these silly bills.

Voter Disenfranchisement
     NC: Killing the youth vote and shortening early voting period
     TN: Student IDs and an underhanded primary plan

Punishing Poor People
     NC: background checks on people seeking welfare and food stamps
     TN: cut off food stamps for kids not making passing grades in school
     (video of Martin Bashir grilling this utter disgrace to humanity)

That Old Time Religion
     NC: Resolution proposed to establish a state religion DOA
     TN: Paranoid fears of Muslims leads to the absurd

Regardless of whether or not these idiotic measures pass, it will take decades, if not forever, for North Carolinans and Tennesseans to recover from the stupidity and insanity on the part of these public servants. The fallout just creates more division and, in the meantime, far more serious problems go unresolved.

If I were to pen an open letter to my state legislators in Tennessee, it would go something like the one Jamison Doran wrote to those in North Carolina. She talks about the profound love she has for her native state:

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I have found that to be almost painfully true as someone who is no longer a resident of North Carolina. I find myself often longing for the cool mountain breezes, ice-cold creeks, sweet tea, and southern hospitality. I wear a pendant of the state around my neck, publicly displaying where my heart lies, and that while Washington, D.C. might be my home right now, it'll never actually be home.

I can relate because I felt exactly the same way all the years I lived in Colorado and elsewhere, returning as often as circumstances would allow. I too felt that the time would arrive when my native state would beckon me home. Ten years ago when the decision was actually made to come back once and for all, I didn't have the "benefit" of reading glaring and embarrassing headlines about "another horrid piece of legislation".

After reviewing North Carolina's collection of absurd and draconian measures, which are so much like Tennessee's that one would be justified in wondering if our legislators met at the bottom of a ravine on the state line, Jamison ends with a plea:

In this "race to the bottom" my only hope is your utter disregard for what is good and right in the state helps bring people together to voice their outrage over what you're doing. So when the time comes we're mobilized to take our state back and out of the hands of the likes of all of you.

It's too late for me but I urge Jamison to remember the words of one of her state's most talented authors:

"You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory." Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again

Thomas Wolfe Museum
Asheville, NC

The Week That Was: Moonshine and Fine Wine

The majority of North Carolina voters must be drinking a lot of that white lightening, a concoction that can make the most docile among us mean as hell. It's also been known to cause blindness and to severely retard the growth of brain cells.

Columnist John Boyle writes in Asheville's "Citizen Times" that he's ashamed of his state for enshrining discrimination against gays in what he refers to as "Abomination One."

You can slice this poorly worded, muddled mess of legislation anyway you want, but it boils down to Bible-driven hatemongering in the guise of saving “God’s definition of marriage.”

When you look at Amendment One in the context of Southern history, and even U.S. history, it makes sense for us to vote for yet another round of discrimination.

After all, conservative Christian preachers have used the Bible to justify slavery, Jim Crow laws and bans on interracial marriage, not to mention keeping women from voting.

When Amendment One first reared its self-righteous head, a conservative friend of mine said to me, regarding homosexuality, “It says right there in the Bible that it’s wrong.”

He didn’t mention that it “says right there in the Bible” that it’s wrong to eat shellfish, wear clothing of varying fibers or to allow your new wife to live with you if you discover she’s not a virgin. In that last case, the Bible says she must be stoned.

Let’s be honest, folks, if you believe the Bible is the infallible, unquestionable word of God, then you better tighten up your Christian living.

Yet, some religious leaders did not support "Abomination One." The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry, the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, issued a statement after its passage. In part, he addressed the hurt and harm this amendment will cause to "unmarried victims of domestic violence, unmarried couples - gay or straight, senior couples and children." This is not the end, he says, "but a new beginning to end any form of discrimination in the constitution of our state. . . ." He ends his brief remarks with a well remembered quote that never fails to move me:

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on. The cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die." -- Edward F. Kennedy

With all due respect to this obviously caring man, I find it very difficult, if not impossible, to feel much charity towards "those who hold a very different opinion," precisely because of the reasons he provides. (VIDEO)

Nor do I feel as optimistic as he does, not even after Mr. Obama served up some fine wine the very next day when he announced that he had evolved and now supported same sex marriage. Don't get me wrong. I'm  thrilled to the tips of my toes that a president of this country of ours has the chutzpah to make such an announcement at any time, but right before a major election? That takes guts, no matter what spurious motivations some critics might want to ascribe to his decision. Bravo, Mr. President.

The expected hue and cry from the Congressional Republicans hasn't materialized. Supposedly they're too busy working on the economy, that is, increasing government spending for the military industrial complex while cutting back on well established and badly needed social programs. In other words, giving the shaft to those in need.

Nope, the hue and cry comes from gays themselves and from the hard left. Since the latter lost any credibility with me ages ago, I'll simply ignore them here. They make me want to vomit, to coin a phrase, and I simply don't care what a bunch of nonentities have to say. I'll leave it to my friend over at The Examined Life to give them a well deserved kick in the posterior.

While I expect nothing but nonsense from the Firebaggers, I was more than a little taken aback when Log Cabin  Republican's R. Clarke Cooper called Obama's announcement "cold comfort" and "offensive and callous."

That the president has chosen today, when LGBT Americans are mourning the passage of Amendment One, to finally speak up for marriage equality is offensive and callous. Log Cabin Republicans appreciate that President Obama has finally come in line with leaders like Vice President Dick Cheney on this issue, but LGBT Americans are right to be angry that this calculated announcement comes too late to be of any use to the people of North Carolina, or any of the other states that have addressed this issue on his watch. This administration has manipulated LGBT families for political gain as much as anybody, and after his campaign’s ridiculous contortions to deny support for marriage equality this week he does not deserve praise for an announcement that comes a day late and a dollar short.

Huh? Say what? Back to Sheria at The Examined Life because she says it better and smarter than I can:

. . . the notion that his speaking out two or three years ago would have made any difference in North Carolina's recent vote to amend the state constitution to declare that marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic union recognized in the state is ludicrous. This particular legislation has been proposed every legislative session for at least the last five years. NC joins 30 other states that have already passed similar constitutional amendments. The majority of voters still don't believe in same-sex marriage as evidenced by the 31 states where citizens came down firmly against safe-sex marriage by referendum. No other president has said a word about gay marriage and now this man finally speaks up and the whine is, it's not enough? Obama made history today.

It boggles my mind that some gays are even members of a political party which is so diametrically opposed in thought, word and deed to anything that even smacks of gayness. It was a Republican, after all, who introduced the "Don't Say Gay" bill in Tennessee. Fortunately it never made it to a final vote, at least not during this session. There's always next year.

I think Chris Matthews sums up my own thoughts pretty well when he refers to gays in the Republican party as "indentured servants."

“I have to wonder how gay men and women who now work for the election of Republican members of Congress, Senators and Romney himself can sit in their work seats and refuse to stand up, walk in the direction of their bosses and candidates, and ask them to join the President on this,” he said.

“I have to wonder how long they can remain indentured servants, how long they can continue to accept the Republican Party’s don’t ask, don’t tell rule that you can work here as long as you keep your mouth shut.”

FURTHER READING:

When Same-Sex Marriage Was a Christian Rite

Martin Bashir, who I greatly admire, takes on the nauseatingly unctuous Robert Jeffress, a former supporter of Rick Perry's, in a segment called Bible Study: Parsing Scripture from Slavery to Same-Sex Marriage

Chris Matthews interviews Barney Frank and Tony Perkins.

The Rev. Chuck Currie, United Church of Christ minister, says Obama's call for marriage equality is consistent with Christian ethics. Brief but very strongly worded.

Perhaps Sophia says it best:

"Homosexuals Are Sexual Predators": UPDATE

So wrote NC Mecklenberg County commissioner Bill James in one email from a string of several between county board members last month. His remarks were made in response to County Commissioner Chair Jennifer Roberts’ request to send a letter thanking some members of the Charlotte-area congressional delegation for their “yes” votes on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) repeal.

Roberts was to send the letter to U.S. Reps. Larry Kissell and Mel Watt and U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan.

"Homosexuals are sexual predators," wrote James.

“Allowing homosexuals to serve in the US military with the endorsement of the Mecklenburg County Commission ignores a host of serious problems related to maintaining US military readiness and effectiveness not the least of which is the current Democrat plan to allow homosexuals (male and female) to share showers with those they are attracted to.”

James added, “The US Government would not allow Hetero men and women to share showers and other personal facilities yet the leading homosexual in Congress (Barney Frank) thinks it is OK for homosexuals to do so allowing enlisted men and women to fall prey to higher ranking or more powerful homosexuals who ogle them (or worse).”

This isn't the first time James has made anti-gay comments.

He often uses derogatory language or slurs to describe LGBT people in debates or communication with fellow public officials and constituents. During debate last December on domestic partner benefits for county employees, James leaned over to his Democratic colleague, Vilma Leake, and called her son a “homo.” Leake’s son died from AIDS in the 1990s.

When Leake heard that, she replied: "Don't make me hurt you. Don't do that to me. Don't talk to me about my son."

He refused to apologize, saying "It is akin to someone whose son is an alcoholic and died from the disease, using his death from drinking as justification to have the taxpayers pay for more booze."

But there's more. This is a copy of an email that he also sent to his fellow commissioner as an official communication:

From: Commissioner Bill James
To: =emails deleted=
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 8:56 AM
Subject: Perversity is not diversity

You really think that a pool of people (homosexuals) where 45% of them eat feces from the rear end of another male is "normal"? If you do, you are frankly nuts.

A lifestyle where one of their past times is buying gerbils and hamsters from the pet store and cramming them up their rears in an activity called feltching? A group of people who like to urinate on their partners and call them "golden showers"? Where one of the honored members of the Gay Alliance is an organization called the "Man-Boy Love Association" that promotes sex with underage boys?

That behavior is worthy of protection? That behavior is worthy to be taught in our schools? to our children? You are one sick "Independent, white, married-heterosexual, presbyterian" if you do.
. . . . .

Pam says James loves to answer emails about his views: 
Wjames@carolina.rr.com


I just received an email from Change.Org that says the county commission is right now publicly debating whether to censure James. You can sign their petition HERE.
 
 

UPDATE (01/09/20110):

The Mecklenburg County Commissioners voted not to censure this cretin arguing in part that "board rules limit its censure power to behavior and not personal speech."

Ironically, James "later joined commissioners in unanimously adopting a resolution pledging their support for diversity, tolerance and inclusion in the community, while oppossing inflammatory speech that could hurt others."

James said he supported the resolution, in part, because he wasn't named in it and said "it won't really accomplish anything." 

He said he believed the measure was a way to put a "nice, glossy, fancy façade" on the issue as the community bids to bring the Democratic National Convention to town, and said if other commissioners were serious about standing up for sexual rights, they'd try to get state laws changed.

Fellow commissioner Vilma Leake said "no censure will ever end this public disrespect by this county commissioner." James had called her son who had died from Aids a homo.

James' remarks have also included his saying urban blacks "live in a moral sewer" and comparing illegal immigrants to drug dealers and prostitutes.

He does sort of look like Rush.
It must be the squinty eyes, fat cheeks, multiple chins,

and thin lips.