And That's All I'll Say About That

Mixed messages can be a bummer and certainly frustrating. Take these somewhat conflicting Supreme Court rulings. In 2015, The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that 'Gays' could marry nationwide. Three years later the U. S. Supreme Court put a damper of the Gay couples wedding reception as it ruled that the local baker had legal (religious) rights to refuse baking the Gays a Wedding Cake.

This reminds me of 1964, when I was in my second year coaching and teaching in Assumption, Illinois. Gerry and I had been married three and a half years and had a two and a half year old son. Assumption is a small rural community with conflicting population figures. Entering the town from different directions you will see two different population numbers. When we lived there you could count one grocery store, one drug store, one hardware store one laundromat, one lumber store, one bank, three churches and I don't  know how many saloons because back then locals bought beer for faculty.

Anyway, one Saturday morning, I went into Hafner's Drugs and asked Mr. Hafner for condoms. To my surprise, I got a lecture from the old gent that I should not interfere with God's plan for how many children I should have and he went on to give a heartfelt testimony for his Catholic beliefs. At that moment, I wanted to tell Mr. Hafner to get on the school board and see if he could do something about my yearly salary of $4,850.00 for teaching six classes and coaching three sports. Later, I mentioned my Hafner Drug Store experience to a neighbor who happened to be Catholic and he said, "I should've warned you about old man Hafner, I go to Taylorville to get my condoms."

Recently the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration for employers to opt out of insurance coverage for contraceptives on religious moral grounds. I'll bet Mr. Hafner is smiling wherever he may be; Heaven, Hell or Purgatory.

Of course, in this 2020-year with a Pandemic up America's ass, we have some hardheaded religious fanatics that raise Hell about mandatory mask-wearing, even though it is proven that masks slow the spread of a killer virus. You hear the idiotic claim, "It's our Constitutional right to not wear a mask, blah, blah, blah," or "I'm covered in the blood of Jesus, therefore I don't need no mask." Aside from rejecting science and not being a team player for humanity, whatever happened to the baker's right not to serve the Gays or Mr. Hafner's religious convictions to not sell birth-control protection? Recently,  have seen several confrontations in stores and other businesses over the mask debate.  Listen folks, businesses have the right to refuse your entrance...'No Shirt, No Shoes, No Mask...NO SERVICE!' Hit the road, Jack!

For the purpose of transparency and recorded history:  Assumption had a terrible snowstorm in January 1964 and I couldn't make it over to Taylorville...in October of that year, Mason City, Illinois Doctor Jack Means assisted in the delivery of a little girl for Gerry and me. I wanted to name the baby, 'Haffie' but my wife won out and named her Dawn.