Boy Columnist, aka Larry Keeling at the Lexington Herald-Leader, may be suffering from too much Bushberry Jam again, or perhaps he’s been tinkering with his lawnmower and thus inhaling fumes he said rendered him…well, strange last year. He somehow has connected the dots, as seen in his latest column, that joins the anti-homosexual group of 2004 to the anti-war group of 2006 by inferring that the legislature can’t tell the difference between them. Oh, the group is the same, of course, but to most reasonable people, the current protest has nothing to do with the previous protest.
Boy Columnist seems terribly miffed that this group he identifies as “a kooky little group from Kansas” was not in Frankfort two years ago to demonstrate in favor of a ban on same–sex marriage, one of its pet projects, but is expected to appear to rail against legislation that would outlaw disruptive behavior at funerals/memorial services. Presumably, Boy Columnist somehow equates same-sex marriage with funerals, the logical conclusion being that protest/approval concerning one should be the same concerning the other, or vice versa. In other words, if Boy Columnist thinks a lawn should not be mowed by a mind-deadening, polluting, gas-powered mower, it should also not be mowed by a push-mower, since Boy Columnist has made a judgment that the two mowers are just alike. Make sense? Of course not.
On Monday, the House passed its version of the legislation banning funeral protests by a vote of 94-0. Later that day, the Senate voted 35-0 to approve an amended version of its bill concerning same, which initially passed on Friday. Boy Columnist quoted the legislature’s resident homosexual, Ernesto Scorsone: "Anyone who was here two years ago ... would be surprised to know the commonwealth is so tolerant and so supportive of gays." So…Boy Columnist takes that to mean that the kooky little group, in order to be for funeral protests, should be for same-sex marriage, since the legislature has upheld the group’s former position but deep-sixed its present crusade. Make sense? Of course not.
The trigger for all this, of course, has been the group’s virulent anti-war protests at the funerals of fallen soldiers who died in the Iraq conflict. Families of the soldiers should not have to go through this miserable business – the awful posters, shouting, etc. One hopes the legislation can stand the rights granted in the First Amendment, but the fact is that the law enforcement people probably will have to find another reason for trucking the protesters off to jail in order to maintain the proper decorum. For instance, a permit to demonstrate might be required but denied account of possible threat to life and limb. Such permits are routinely requested, sometimes denied, sometimes granted.
In any case, Boy Columnist has no business blaming just the legislature for any supposed intolerance of same-sex marriage. The amendment initiative it approved disallowing this kooky arrangement was supported 75% to 25% by the voters in 2004. Boy Columnist is indelibly on the record as supporting same-sex marriage, and perhaps is just venting his spleen, since he surely has enough reasoning ability to see the difference between 2004 and 2006.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
No comments:
Post a Comment