God bless Jan Brewer. (This time.)

In the 1960’s our country had a major uprising and we decided who could and who could not sit at the lunch counter.  In the end, it was decided that in a land of the free, everyone could sit at the lunch counter or ride anywhere they wished on the bus, or drink from any fountain or stay at any hotel. (Hell Augusta National even has black and female members now.)

Then came the crazies of Arizona. (Not all that dissimilar from Texas, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, as well as Tennessee and Missouri.) They decided that by a vote of the legislature, they could force their Tea Party will on the public and make it okay to discriminate against gay people, based on religion.

Now to be fair, I know some good Christians (a bit of an oxymoron there...)who are just down right incensed at the gay lifestyle.  And that is their business and their right to be turned off by it.  But they would never stoop to exclude these people from the sect of potential shoppers for their commercial establishments. They may be small minded, but they are good bueiness people and they can count the money as well as the next guy.

But here is the bigger problem...if you took this law to its utmost realm of possibility, then one could say that a doctor or a hospital or a pharmacist  could refuse service of anyone it deemed did not fit their religious beliefs. Not Mormon enough for you?  Sorry no pre-school inoculations for your child.  Too off colored in humor for you?  Sorry, no coffee for you at the local caffeine dive.  Haven’t been fully immersed in baptism only sprinkled?  Sorry, we can’t operate on your appendix inn our hospital. That is how ridiculous this law could have made it.

Not just gay people.  But anyone that even remotely rubbed you and your religious views the wrong way could be excluded from services rendered and products sold in Arizona.

Luckily, their bat-shit crazy governor, Jan Brewer, had a moment of clarity, or a frightening dose of reality when she realized the economic impact this stupid right-wing law was going to have on her state, and she vetoed the measure. 

A bullet was dodged.  

But why was this insidious piece of legislation even brought to floor of a lawmaking body, let alone passed?  Aren’t we, as an educated, civilized  people beyond all this hate and bigotry?  Haven’t we learned our lessons well enough to know right from wrong?

Had Governor Brewer signed the law into place, Jim Crow would once again be alive and well OFFICIALLY in America.  To be sure, Jim Crow still exists just under the surface in some areas.  Just visit Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and East Texas. Crow has much support in these dark corners of failed enlightenment.

But Arizona can breathe a bit easier.  Their state will not be humiliated (too much) on late night talk shows, nor made fun of (too much) by comedians and editorial cartoonist. And the real winner, the real winner is not the LGBT community, even though the law was aimed at them: no, the real winner is the U.S. Constitution. We the people are still a collective until not segregated by race, religion, creed or lifestyle.

Thank you Jan Brewer.  You helped make America a better place to live.  For once, you acted like a true leader.