The most undesirable places to live in the United States are in the south, if you are intelligent, a woman, a black person, a Hispanic, or a member of the LGBT community. These states are enacting laws to restrict or eliminate abortions for women. They are changing the voting laws to make it more difficult for blacks and other minorities to vote. Now they are passing anti-gay legislation. The rights of religious extremists are being served while others are being punished.

In Mississippi, a new law, signed Tuesday by Governor Phil Bryant, violates the Constitution. The 14^th amendment requires equal protection under the law, but employers who claim to be Christian are allowed to fire an employee if they discover that person is a member of the LGBT community. Businesses who claim to be operated by Christians are not forced to offer their services to same-sex couples.

First of all, these people are not Christians; they do not believe in the teaching of Jesus Christ. They are judgmental and filled with hate; those are not “Christ-like” qualities.

Secondly, why would anyone want to live in Mississippi? The state is composed of racists and bigots, and women are third-class citizens. The educational system is one of the worst in our nation, and the poverty level is horrendous.

I was stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi, while I was in the United States Air Force. When we went into town, hatred filled the air. Over half of the bars were off limits to Airmen because violence had occurred in the establishment. By the time I arrived back home in Los Angeles, I didn’t understand why Abraham Lincoln didn’t allow the south to secede from the Union; we didn’t need them, and they didn’t want to part of our country.

Thanks to hate-filled legislation, our country is moving backwards instead of forward. While the rest of the world’s developed nations are moving into the 21^st century, ours is moving backwards to the 20^th.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

Photo Courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture

Novels by James Turnage are available on Amazon Kindle