It's 2009 right? Well, this little gem from the AP is the perfect example of why the hateful - and often racist - railings for the right wing talkers give cover to people who then choose to make blatantly racist decisions in everyday life.
Here is the link: http://news.yahoo.com/...
Details below the jump...
In Louisiana, a Justice of the Peace refused to issue a marriage license to a racially mixed couple. Keith Bardwell (let's name names, shall we?), a justice Tangipahoa Parish says that he's not a racist, but he was concerned about their potential children. Why? Well, because in his opinion, racially mixed marriages don't last very long. Instead, he recommended that they have somebody else marry them.
And then - here's the kicker - he fell onto that age old excuse that he cannot possibly be a racist because he has friends who are not white. In fact, here is the money quote: "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."
I should just let that quote speak for itself, but in case anybody is missing this, I own piles of books, piles of boxes, piles of pots and pans - basically piles of objects. Not piles of people. And when they visit, one assumes removing themselves from the pile, he's kind enough to let them use his restroom. What an egalitarian!
Thankfully, the clearly victimized couple has brought this to the attention of the authorities and the ACLU (which - I'm sure - will take legal action).
And here is my final point: When you have people on the airwaves (never mind the Internet) with large audiences, they are opinion leaders (whether we choose to agree with those opinions or not). When they spew hate speech of any kind, they give cover to actions like this. And although Mr. Bardwell would have had his opinions regardless of who is on the airwaves, it is possible he never would have felt comfortable taking actions such as these if it were not for the aid and comfort provided by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, et. al.