Saturday, August 9, 2014

Feel Good Friday, August 8

 

I am convinced that eventually people will come to recognize that we’re all more alike than different, and that everyone should be judged individually on their actions not on which segment of society they fit in to.  But though I firmly believe this will come to pass, I often despair that it will happen so slowly that I will not get to witness even the earliest waves of enlightenment.

Because of this, I love to read a story about a place called Latta, South Carolina, a tiny little town full of old fashioned conservative values in a state that seems to have little respect for the rights of its gay citizens.  But that’s not what makes it a good story.  No, what makes it a good story is that even with all their “traditional values”, Latta was still able to come together and fight for a member of their community when their police chief was fired for having the audacity to be gay.

Now, we all know that people’s belief systems don’t do a complete 180 overnight, so I think we can safely assume that there are a lot of folks in Latta who still believe that romantic couples ought to be made up of a man and a woman, so their show of solidarity in standing up for the police chief because of who she is rather than any group she belongs to  is outstanding.

It’s those sorts of actions that will ultimately lead to that happy future I was talking about it earlier, and I think that definitely qualifies for Feel Good Friday.  Congratulations, Latta, on finding a way to get your chief back.

If you’d like to read more details about a town doing the right thing, you can find the story here.