The least of these, Pt. III

Dear editor:

To alert myself to legislative overreach, I subscribe to the “Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council,” newsletter, by its Executive Director Larry Page (llp@arfaith.org). It is a reliable source of the forthcoming “blue law” legislation which seems to obsess a legislature whose energies would be better deployed, per the commands of God from Moses onward, toward schools, infrastructure and the care of the “least of these” (Matt 25:40). If we are to seriously believe that the items in the newsletter are an account of our wishes, then we Arkansans must surely be a lot of vicious misogynist locker-room thugs and carping self-righteous hags. But those words certainly do not describe the sweet and loving Arkansans I meet every time I turn around. I just don’t think people keep informed. So herewith is a sample of what’s coming down the legislative pipeline as extracted from the newsletter:

House Bill 1156 (HB1156) “… will protect students at public schools and public charter schools from having to share sex-specific spaces such as locker rooms, shower rooms, restrooms, changing areas where stages of undress are common with a member of the opposite biological sex. Accommodations, such as single-use facilities may be provided for those declaring a different gender identity than the sexual identity given at birth. This bill is essential if we are to protect female students from having to undress and shower with biological males.”

Mr. Page’s implicit misogynistic assumption that boys don’t need protection from viewing girls circumferentially identifies the intended object of the bill’s attack.

Now here’s a real locker-room thug misogynist kicker that should make all Arkansans want to throw full inkwells at every legislator’s head:

House Bill 1174 (HB1174), among other measures that “protect unborn children” (By policing whom? And policed by whom?) “would remove the exemption in current law that prohibits ‘the charging or conviction of a woman with any criminal offense in the death of her own unborn child.’” In other words, making it OK to prosecute a woman for her own abortion!

Holy mackerel! What diseased mind came up with that one? Just count the number of demonic bases it covers — under cover of righteousness, a lascivious and sadistic indulgence in schadenfreude through ruining the lives of thousands! Shall we thus pack the penitentiaries to justify our new attorney general’s platform of building more? Yeah, great for the economies where they’re planted. But have you looked at ADC’S staffing woes as they stand? Next stop, the ovens?

But to Mr. Page and his Council’s credit, they have retracted their initial endorsement of HB1174 owing to the very clause cited above, calling it. “a ‘bridge too far,’ and not a direction Arkansans are willing to take.”

Pray God that such merciful hearts attend deliberations as the bill moves forward.

I recommend subscribing to Mr. Page’s newsletter. I have found it a great source of early warning concerning a legislative agenda for creating a police state that would blaspheme the Lord by claiming it created in His Name.

Tom Heckmann Hot Springs