We didn’t ask for all this
‘Shout out’ to the Mississippi legislature and governor for lending more credence to the perception by the rest of the U. S. that Mississippi is still as backwards as the day is long. Yeah, that HB 1523, the ‘Religious Freedom Bill’, sure was a home run.
Backlash from the signing of the bill by Gov. Phil Bryant less than two weeks ago has already begun. Bryan Adams, a rock-n-roll icon from the 1980s and adored by many a millennial here in the state, cancelled his concert at the Coast Coliseum Biloxi that was scheduled for Thursday night, siding with the LGBT community’s complaint against the legislation. Hundreds of hotel rooms, restaurants, fueling centers, part-time security companies and so forth will lose tremendous revenue–job creating and sustaining revenue–that the community sorely needs. The rest of the state will lose the benefit of the sales tax revenue that would have been brought in, too.
Perhaps Mr. Adams’ reasoning is wrong to many of us, and he doesn’t understand the true intent of the law. It doesn’t matter. He’s out and has taken all the money with him somewhere else. And, if I had to guess, more of this will come.
Imagine if the great baseball teams at Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Southern Miss keep winning this season and set themselves up to be in a position to host a post-season regional. What’s to stop the NCAA from following Mr. Adams’ lead, by preventing a host site or sites in the state based on the appearance cast out from the Religious Freedom Law? Can you imagine the deafening silence in an empty Left Field Lounge, the Left Field Terrace or Pete Taylor Park if any of our college baseball teams earn a national seed and have to go on the road to ‘host’?
When will our legislators finally come to the realization that the only denomination that matters here is U. S. currency and the only color that matters is green? When will our legislators learn that, though the Civil War has been over for more than 150 years, the deck remains stacked against the citizens of Mississippi, and we don’t need our own elected state officials to further prop it up? Mississippi–meaning those that are in charge in the state–should be doing everything to foster economic development and a high quality of life for all Mississippians, instead of building more and more barriers for us average Joes to have to overcome.
Legislators–we didn’t elect you for this. Repeal the law. Its stinks. Its no good. It hurts all of our citizens.
– Joe