Trump Supporters Haven't Learned

Two people were recently shown in an interview by ABC network's national TV news. These people are in Kentucky, in a county that voted for Donald Trump. And both are people with serious medical problems. Theirs is a coal-mining area, and I think at least one of the two men has black lung disease.

They rely on "Obama Care"; one of the men said he didn't know what he'd do without his health care coverage. Yet he voted for Trump (as did the other man), despite the fact that Trump's promises might well take away this man's health insurance.

Is this illogical only to me? I don't think it's nice to wish anybody ill. But if this man loses his health insurance, I would say to him-given the chance--that he brought that on himself when he cast his ballot for Trump.

Well I guess it's not news that Homo sapiens is not always a completely logical animal. And neither Americans in general nor Kentucky coal miners have any monopoly on illogicality. Yet I was certain that Trump supporters had begun to understand their mistake. So far that does not seem to be the case.

Copyright © 2017.

Kentucky County Clerk Refuses to Issue Marriage Licenses to Same-Sex Couples

An ongoing news story says that Kim Davis, the county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, has been refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite the Supreme Court decision that same-sex couples have the right to marry, and other court rulings that she must do so as it is required by her job.

Ms. Davis claims that it is against her religious convictions; that  her religion says that same-sex marriage is wrong, and that she will go to Hell if her signature is affixed to a marriage license for a same-sex couple.

Well, I am not a Biblical scholar (and I suspect Ms. Davis is not, either), but I am extremely skeptical that the Bible, or Jesus, anywhere says that two people of the same gender may not marry. In fact, "Biblical marriage" (as these Religious Right types keep talking about) would require that a widow marry her brother-in-law--at least under certain conditions (Deuteronomy 25:5). Of course it is no news at all that these anti-gay, bible-thumping types pick and choose what in the Bible they care to pay attention to.

Of course Ms. Davis is entitled to believe as she wishes. But if she is unwilling or unable to perform her duties as the courts define them, then I'd say the answer to the problem is really very simple: she should resign her job, but this she refuses to do.

As long as the United States is not a theocracy (that is, we have a secular society rather than one governed by religious law), her religious objections to doing her job should not outweigh the definition of her duties.

Anyway, these are my words to Ms. Davis: You've had your 15 minutes of fame. Now go away.

Copyright (c) 2015