Arkansas must do better through equality for all

Recently, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled it’s not illegal to discriminate against our LGBT citizens, and the city of Fayetteville cannot enforce its anti-discrimination ordinance.

The founding principles of our country are clear about equality for all. We’ve struggled from the beginning to live up to that aspiration, but we try. So far, we haven’t changed the pledge of allegiance to “with liberty and justice for some.”

The teachings of Christ are also clear about caring for all people. Cryptic Old Testament quotes (not the teachings of Christ) are used by some to justify discrimination.

Our current political climate emboldens those who continue to carry some of our most painful historical prejudices against race, gender and sexual orientation. But our country’s founding documents were intended to endure shifting political views and power. New groups, with different biases, could come to power and attempt to suppress new and different aspects of our unique individual makeup. Perhaps each of us should think about our family origin, our gender, our individual views and worship preferences. Should we fear future groups could come to power and decide some of us are not deserving of equal freedoms as a result of any one of the many things that make each of us who we are?

Decisions also have unintended consequences. Arkansas has been my adopted home for more than a decade, and I have the highest hopes and wishes for our future. I fear a general image that might inhibit modern industries and economic prosperity from coming here. And I fear the message your decisions may send to our children and grandchildren.

It may be too great an aspiration to follow both the founding principles of our country and our religious ideals.

But we should try. And we must do better than this. RON STRATTON Bella Vista