Vicco Mayor Johnny Cummings/Photo from the Hazard Herald
The world is starting to notice what happened last week in Vicco, Kentucky, which became likely the smallest town in America to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance that includes sexual orientation. WFPL, the public radio affiliate in Louisville, has a great read about what the bill's supporters learned in the 300-person town. From WFPL's report:
"In a community with only half a dozen businesses in it, it seemed a little much to pass a 26- or 27-page law," said Chris Hartman, director of the Fairness Campaign located in Louisville. "So the city attorney really distilled the ordinance there and made a law that would work for a community the size that Vicco is."
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"I think that we’ll be able to use his [city attorney Eric Ashley's] work and maybe his assistance moving forward in some of the other small communities that maybe a little uncertain about what a fairness ordinance does and does not do," Hartman said.
Vicco's new and openly gay mayor sat out the vote; the rest of the council voted it for three-to-one. FWIW, I would say that in addition to shrinking the bill to a readable size, the folks working to pass it in Vicco and other places are calling it a "fairness" ordinance. We treasure "equality" in this country, but we live day-to-day with the hope of neighborly "fairness."
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Laura -- Thanks for posting this! I clicked over to the WFPL link, saw that Owensboro was considering the same sort of thing, and left a little note of encouragement to the many dozens of my cousins still living there. (Yeah, dozens. Prolific family.)
Wouldn't have known about this otherwise. So thanks once again for your thoughtful eye!
--bc/hv
Yes, "Fairness" ordinance seems a more likeable term than "equality" measure. There is kindness and practicality in trying to help people be more comfortable with giving a minority their civil rights. It has gone well this time, and I am glad.
On the other hand, this business of renaming things to give reform a friendly face also seems like appeasement. Unless "fairness" really is the same as "equality," it's a diminution of the demand for equality into a request for fairness.
If this is something that is being looked at as a model for reforming other small towns, I'm not entirely convinced it's the right thing to do.
But this does indeed seem to be about fairness, rather than equality per se. The ordinance deals with how citizens are treated, not their legal status.
That's a good distinction. I just don't want it to become a replacement for doing the right thing.
As a society, we must move beyond equal opportunity and get to equal results. It should be a constitution al guarantee.
I'm a liberal, a pretty big one, and that's too far. You, on the other hand, are a conservative troll, strewing strawmen in your wake.
Three cheers for simple, straightforward assertions of the fundamental worth and dignity of every human being.
Now we wait for scott-with-7-numbers and his fellow trolls to come in here and babble about 'deviant sex' or some other right wing talking (miss-the-)point...
When you get every thing in life "fair", ring my bell I wanna see.How do you define discrimination and who gets to define it? We all agree no one should be harassed, assaulted or slandered because of social differences.This is is never enough though.These open ended ambiguous statutes are often used to silence opposition and religious beliefs.
I sat thru a "Diversity Awareness" class at work once.What it was simply, is that everyone in this room is an intolerant bigot somehow or another and you've already been found guilty so go ahead and plead out to the charge.Some tried to stone wall and not discuss their political or religious beliefs.Which was met with open hostility by the instructors.It was humiliating, stupid, ineffective,pointless and down right Orwellian.
If your political or religious beliefs lead you to attitudes and judgements that you are ashamed to discuss publicly, it should be a wake-up call to you. If you harbor feelings about your fellow Americans that make it impossible for you to live with them in peace and harmony, I'd call them un-American feelings. We have lots of problems in this country, problems that will not be solved if we can't see each other as we are and still want to work for a better way. This is the 21st Century, and hanging on to bigotry will get us nowhere. Trying to justify bigotry by calling them religious beliefs is hypocritical, since true Christianity does not accept such attitudes. If you feel bigotry is a legitimate political stance, try looking at the parties which support bigotry, and notice they are not on the upswing in support or popularity. America has to take all of its people into the future, and find ways for all of us to prosper-- otherwise we will be left in the dustbin of history.
You must wrk at Dunder Mifflin, eh?
Bravo for Vicco! Who knew there was such a progressive little civilization thriving in Kentucky?
Bless them. They could teach a lot about love to the somewhat backward people of Idaho. I'm very sorry to say I believe Idaho's motto is: Discriminate, Discriminate, Discriminate. Such narrow minded people we have here.
Times have changed parenting has changed our children have less respect for their elders, parents and the law. This is why we have to change. If we continue to to stand still things will just get worse. There are people today that don't want any change so they don't work with others to try and keep our children and society safe. There is to much hatred today and it is constantly being shown in many ways. When I grew up you couldn't get us to come inside, we were always running around the neighborhood. We played all kind of games but if you were told to be in when the street lights came on you had better be in. Today we can't get them out of the house until they are older. They sit in the house watch TV play games on TV text tweet and don't pay attention to what we are trying to tell them. They know it all. As our President says we have to move forward. I'm an independent by the way and I feel that the President has some very good ideas and some bad. I feel that the good out weighs the bad. I see most everything in America is getting better. More jobs, good stock market homes are being built again and home prices are starting to regain there value. Why is there so much hatred for our President. He hasn't started any wars he's ending them. He is trying to save lives ,both in the military and on the streets. Why is there so much hatred from the otherside???
Dude. LRN 2 paragraph. Also, making your entire post bold? Not a winning strategy. Different fonts are for emphasis (did you see what I did there?); making your whole post "stand out" makes none of it stand out. In addition, commas are your friends. You may find this primer helpful.
... Or not. I'm not really going for "helpful" at this point, since that wall-o-text made my eyes bleed. :P