Due to local elections, my column has been bumped to next week in the paper so it won’t show up here till then either. So this is my week off. I don’t have to sit here staring at the blank computer screen trying to come up with a topic that will hold my interest long enough to write about it. Wow. You’d think I’d feel more relieved than I do.
Meanwhile, for all Alaskans reading this, please vote no on the advisory vote to deny same sex couples health care benefits. First of all, let’s not codify discrimination into our constitution. That’s just wrong. Secondly, it isn’t trying to redefine marriage. Since we’ve already put into law that marriage is between a man and a woman, I think that’s pretty safe. Of course, I still find myself wondering how someone’s marriage is threatened by someone else getting health care benefits. I’m even more confused that most of the people who want to deny this basic benefit to same sex couples are claiming to do so in the name of Jesus. If they are referring to the same Jesus I read about in the New Testament, I have to say I think he’d be pretty pissed to think people would use his name to be mean and hurtful to someone. I think he’d say judge not, let ye be judged. Or love thy neighbor as thyself. Or he who is without sin, cast the first stone. Considering the number of Christians who admit to cheating on their spouses, their taxes, their business partners, their shareholders…well, you get the picture. There are few without sin.
So let’s be fair and honest and decent and allow people the health care benefits we should all have available to us. It’s the Christian thing to do.