The Nature of Things

The people who have assumed control of our federal government and who are notably hostile to the idea of separation of church and state are doing everything possible to give employers the right to impose their religious views on their employees. Hence the recent rolling back of the ACA mandate on contraceptives . This reminded me of something I had written way back in 2012 when the fast food corporation Chick-fil-A was much in the news over their president's intolerance and his desire to impose his intolerance on others. I suspect that corporation is feeling very comfortable and more self-righteous than ever in the era of Trumpism. ~~~ Thursday, August 2, 2012 The Chick-fil-A brouhaha Apparently the fast food franchise Chick-fil-A is  making money hand over fist  on the brouhaha generated by its president's intolerant comments concerning gay marriage. The whole thing was ginned up by Mike Huckabee, the Fox News commentator, who called for a national appreciation day for Chick-...

My social media accounts have been filling up over the last few days with angry screeds from "friends" who have been encouraged by our president to rage against the idea of athletes exercising their First Amendment rights to peacefully protest injustice. Typically, on Facebook, they post a picture of themselves surrounded by flag images stating "I stand!" I fully respect their right to express their opinions, but I confess that I have a few questions about their sincerity.  You see, many of these same people have in recent months been filling up my social media news feeds with images of Confederate flags and Confederate generals, angrily denouncing anyone who would argue that the public display and aggrandizement of these artifacts is inappropriate. And, of course, there have been the impassioned reimaginings of the Civil War as a defense of "states' rights" not slavery and of Robert E. Lee as a "good" slave owner whose slaves actually loved ...