Age of the Geek

Resistance Is Futile
 
     Watching all that Star Trek recently reminded me that our ultimate goal as a society should be a world without bias and prejudice. The crew of the Enterprise are constantly telling newly discovered civilizations about how they used to have things like racism and sexism, but have long since outgrown such beliefs.
     As a 90s kid, I assumed this is how all adults thought. After all, if a sci-fi show can so clearly demonstrate an ideal world free of prejudice, it couldn't be that hard for rational adults to just follow that example.
     Yes, I know I'm late to the party for this column, but I honestly thought that Kim Davis would keep the three-ring circus she's made out of her courthouse office going a little bit longer.
     For those that have forgotten already, Davis is the Kentucky County Clerk who just spent five nights in jail after ignoring a court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. She was appropriately released to the sound of an illegal performance of "Eye of the Tiger" and greeted by Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who has apparently given up any pretense of not wanting to turn this country into a theocracy.
     (Fun thought… I wonder how many of Kim Davis' supporters would have completely flipped out if it had been a Muslim elected official using their position to keep people from eating pork.)
     It's entirely possible that Davis will start the circus right back up again when she returns to work on Monday, but for now it appears that all she wants is her name and title removed from the licenses. Of course Davis could have her name removed from them any time she wants. All she has to do is resign her position, which is all she's ever had to do if she didn't want to do her job.
     Instead Davis is still apparently under the impression that you can just pick and choose which laws to follow, which is what got her jailed in the first place.
     And yes, those five nights were well earned and well deserved.
     Let's make a few things clear here. Kim Davis was not jailed because of her religious beliefs. She was jailed because she ignored a court order to either do her job, or let somebody else do it.
     In fairness, I can understand why she might have been confused. After all, the Supreme Court has been sending mixed messages about this issue. One would think it would be pretty straight forward. You can believe in whatever religion you want, but your business still has to follow the law. You can't allow rats to run rampant in your restaurant no matter what your deeply held convictions have to say about exterminators and there's no sacred text that will allow you to ignore building codes.
     This should be common sense, and yet the Supreme Court allowed the owners of Hobby Lobby to be exempt from laws that conflict with their interpretation of their religion. With that in mind, it's easy to see why Davis might have been under the impression that federal laws were more like suggestions.
     And for the record, I hold a deeply held religious belief that prevents me from driving less than five MPH over whatever the posted speed limit is. I fully expect our local law enforcement officers to respect my religious practices. My religion also has strict rules about not paying for pizza and coffee, so remember, it's not 5th Degree Theft… it's just my personally held belief.
     In a world that makes sense, the court would have ruled that when you're a business owner whose religious believes come into conflict with the law, you can either hold on to your beliefs or you can hold on to your business, but you can't have them both.
     We don't live in a world that makes sense, but at least when you receive a court order do to your job, you're still expected to follow it.
     Some people would call Davis a modern day Rosa Parks. These people are wrong.
     Kim Davis is a modern day Orval Faubus, the Arkansas Governor who ordered National Guard troops to prevent black children from attending a desegregated school.
     Like Davis, Faubus ignored a court order to treat a particular set of people like… people, and caused a national incident in the process. Also like Davis, there's plenty of speculation that Faubus' hard line stance on a major social issue was less about his personal morality and more about the attention it gained him.
     And of course while Faubus had his local support at the time, he has ultimately gone down in history as an embarrassing symbol of prejudice. A fate that doubtlessly awaits Davis, presuming she's remembered at all.
     The upside is that Davis represents about 0.03% of the country's county clerks. Other than her and the Tennessee judge that refused to issue a divorce to a couple because he no longer understands the meaning of words, the rest of the nation's civil servants appear to be having little difficulty holding on to whatever opinions they have about gay marriage while still doing their job.
     The gay rights issue is no longer the wedge it used to be. People like Davis represent the death gasp of a prejudice making one last attempt to fight the inevitable. We'll see a few more like her pop up every now and then, but for the most part, this issue is over. And it's about time.
 
     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and happily pays for his pizza and coffee.