It’s mostly been a quiet day today (UPDATE: I just posted an item which makes the first clause of this sentence moot, null and void, etc.) – the calm before the storm (literally) – but I saw a few items from today’s Virginia General Assembly that I thought were worth pointing out.
First, some good news courtesy of Sen. Adam Ebbin. Hopefully, this perverse, bass-ackwards piece of public policy – penalizing people for purchasing vehicles with high fuel economy, at a time when we need to be slashing our consumption of fossil fuels due to global climate change – will soon be gone and forgotten, never to return. Let’s hope. Meanwhile, thanks to Sen. Ebbin, Del. Scott Surovell, and others for their efforts at repealing this idiocy.
Now, some frustrating news – although with a glimmer of hope in it – courtesy of Del. Scott Surovell. It’s frustrating, of course, because discrimination is not something that anyone should support, whatever your political affiliation. A glimmer of hope, though, as Republicans increasingly seem to be realizing that they’re just dead wrong on this one (or at least that the politics of this issue are moving against them, fast). One way or the other, either through the courts or the legislature, the disgraceful enshrinement of anti-LGBT bigotry in Virginia’s constitution is going down the tubes. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later.
Finally, here’s a sign that as much as Virginia has changed – and continues to change – for the better, “Ol’ Virginny” isn’t totally dead yet. Hopefully in a few more years, this type of thing (honoring Confederate generals) will be looked at as a weird relic of a strange, bygone era. Just like taxing fuel efficient vehicles and discriminating against a whole class of citizens simply because of their sexual orientation. Let’s hope.
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