Image courtesy of Steve Sack, StarTribune.com
September 16, 2015
You know, one of the downsides to
having been offline for two weeks was the fact that I missed out on commenting
on current events that were taking place while I was on hiatus.
That said, I'm going to be talking
about something that is considered to be old news. And the reason why I want to do this is because I have strong
opinions about the subject matter that I want heard. After all, everybody has a voice in this world, and everyone has
the right to use it.
But when someone uses that voice
to take rights away from other people, I don't agree with that at all.
By now, I'm sure that most of you
have heard of the Kim Davis story, but to refresh the memories of those who
don't know, I'll give a recap. Kim
Davis is the county clerk of Rowan County in the state of Kentucky. The responsibilities of the county clerk
include locating documents for court cases, overseeing local elections, and
granting marriage licenses for couple who wish to get married.
But what happens when a clerk refuses
to do the job that they are expected to do?
Well, such is the case with Kim
Davis.
Remember back in June, when the
United States of America granted same-sex couples in all fifty states the right
to marry? Well, despite that ruling,
Kim Davis basically took it upon herself to deny any same-sex couple the
marriage license that they needed to get married.
The reason Davis gave for not
issuing the licenses was because it went against her beliefs. She feels that marriage should just be
between one man and one woman, and therefore does not believe in gay
marriage. So she took it upon herself
to basically not do the job that she was hired to do.
In fact, she went one step
further. She refused to issue any
licenses to ANY couple, gay or straight in her county whatsoever. Lawsuits were filed, and because of her
stance, she even spent five days in jail.
But despite this, she remains firm on her stance.
So, I guess the main question I
have is...why in the world does she still even have a job in the first place?
Look, I get that Kim Davis is a
bigot. And unfortunately, free speech
gives her the right to be a bigot (just as free speech gives me the right to
call her one). At the same time, if
you're not doing your job - like issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples
because it is the law to do so - then that person should not have that job any
longer.
I mean, think about it. I hate the colour pink. Does that mean that at my job, I have the
right to refuse service to anybody who happens to be wearing pink? Absolutely not. But of course, that's a really lame example to compare what Kim
Davis did, so let's one-up my scenario, shall we?
I work in the hardware and
sporting goods department in my day job.
And one of my duties that I have to perform at my job is to sell
ammunition and pellet guns to customers, which I have to admit is not the most
fun task in the world.
You see...I'm not a huge fan of
hunting. I especially don't like the
idea of sport hunting. Nothing disgusts
me more than knowing that people would shoot beautiful animals for show. My feelings are that unless you are hunting
to provide food for your family, I don't think we should be doing it at
all. I'm definitely not saying that
everyone that I have sold ammo to is like this, but part of me wonders if there
were any that are.
That said, do my beliefs about
hunting give me the right to not sell ammunition to sport hunters because I
don't agree with their recreational activities? Obviously not. I'd find
myself at the end of an unemployment line pretty quick if I ever did that!
Look, I may not agree with hunting
or selling ammo, but it is in my job description to do so. I even signed a document saying that I would
sell ammo and that I was old enough to sell ammo. That's part of the job. I
may not like some duties of the job, but if I want to stay employed, I have to
(pardon the pun) bite the bullet.
Kim Davis took a similar oath when
she took on her job title. She knows
what her duties are, and is getting paid to do the job others expect her to
do. If she's not going to perform those
duties, either demote her to another position or get rid of her entirely. It's just that simple.
And please don't give me any song
and dance number about how she is only standing up for what she believes
in. I've seen the meme that compares
Davis to civil rights activist Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a
bus to a white person. There is
absolutely no comparison between the two!
Rosa Parks took a stand to give
people more rights. Kim Davis took a
stand to take rights away.
No comments:
Post a Comment