BY: David Norlin
Originally published, Kansas Reflector
Public officials’ actions can be flawed or a fraud. Yet some people applaud.
June 12, Salina’s city commission offered a prime example. A routine proclamation was read and signed by the mayor. It recognized Pride Month and celebrated LGBTQ contributions to city, state and country. Standard stuff.
Imagine everyone’s surprise, then, when new commissioner and soon-to-be-mayor Bill Longbine rose up, announced he was recusing himself and walked out of the meeting.
The next meeting, he was called to task during public comments. His response: “I do have deeply held beliefs and values. This did conflict with my beliefs and values, and I have that right.”
Following calls for an apology, three rose instead to applaud Longbine’s action. All were members of a like-minded local group, including one of their leaders, Chad Farber, a pastor and city commission candidate. Farber has long been outspoken against freedom for teachers in public schools and an opponent of city regulation, including for public health measures, vaccines or otherwise. Like Longbine, he consistently proclaims that his faith, first and foremost, will guide his public policy votes.
To be fair, it can be argued Longbine’s action harmed no one. No one was shot. No one was fired. No harm, no foul.
But here’s the rub: As commissioner, even Salina’s formal ethics code requires Longbine serve and respect all the public. His public trust includes a commitment to growth and working toward mutual understanding. Given his stance, future votes of greater consequence may be, well, more consequential.
His lack of commitment to examine his religious ideas (“moral” or not) means he can’t be trusted to vote in everyone’s best interest. His religion hems us in. By self-proclamation, he is capable of — and in a sense, committed to — inflicting harm, in the right circumstance.
This is dangerous.
Think such things can’t happen? Consider this: In Sterling, both city librarians lost their jobs because they had the temerity to use a rainbow in a book display.
"Think such things can’t happen? Consider this: In Sterling, both city librarians lost their jobs because they had the temerity to use a rainbow in a book display."
– David Norlin
As Dion Lefler of the Wichita Eagle editorialized: “It used to be you could get fired from a government job for being too prejudiced. Now, in Sterling, Kansas, you get fired for not being prejudiced enough.”
According to Lefler, Sterling library board vice president Michelle Miller said: “I do not want any kind of rainbow display … especially in this month. We are in Pride Month. People are on display. We have a conservative town and as a library, do not need to make political statements like Target and Bud Light.”
The Sterling Library Board is not elected. The mayor is on that board. He appoints other members submitted by the existing board. In this way, unaccountable public officials just cost accountable public servants their jobs.
In Saint Marys, officials aren’t removing the librarian. They’re trying to remove the library. The city commission again threatens to end the library’s building lease unless their religious doctrines prevail.
So much for the freedom to read.
Going above city level, greater power brings even greater injustice. Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach has lost no time misusing his office. He is suing Gov. Laura Kelly to change driver’s licenses (already issued by request of transgender individuals) back to an undesired or even repugnant gender designation.
So much for individual freedom.
National office provides even more power to harm. Tommy Tuberville, a former football coach now serving as Republican U.S. senator from Alabama, has put a hold on all military appointments. He wants the Senate to vote on a military policy allowing travel reimbursement for service members seeking abortion services.
His self-righteous religious conviction endangers not only bodily autonomy but national security and defense. Tuberville’s from a different state, but he has a similar state of mind. Overwhelming condemnation of his actions, even from senators of his own party, have not swayed him. His “religion” tells him he is right. And the rest of us can, well, go to hell.
So much for bodily autonomy.
This is dangerous. Theocracy is not democracy. Will we really let another’s conscience be our guide?
These leaders’ actions, and the churches and members who support them, lead me to echo Mary Gauthier’s song “Mercy Now”:
“My church and my country could use a little mercy now
As they sink into a poisoned pit, gonna take forever to climb out.
They carry the weight of the faithful who follow them down
I love my church and country and they could use some mercy now.”
David Norlin is a retired Cloud County Community College teacher, where he was department chairman of communications/English, specializing in media.
This article contains views and opinions which are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any other author, agency, organization, employer or company, including Eagle Communications.
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