Louisiana Justice REFUSES To Marry Interacial Couple

Elena

This story is appalling! The year is not 1960 but 2009, and yet this couple has to search for another Justice of the Peace to marry them because they were denied their right to marry based soley on the color of their skin? I believe the state of Virginia, in Loving V. Virginia, resolved this many years ago, who would, or could, imagine such blantent racism still existed today.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — A justice of the peace in Louisiana who has drawn widespread criticism for refusing to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple says he has no regrets about his decision.

“It’s kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven’t done wrong,” Keith Bardwell told CNN affiliate WAFB on Saturday.

Bardwell, a justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish’s 8th Ward, refused to issue a marriage license to Beth Humphrey, 30, and her boyfriend, Terence McKay, 32, both of Hammond.

“I’m not a racist,” Bardwell told the newspaper. “I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children.” Bardwell, stressing that he couldn’t personally endorse the marriage, said his wife referred the couple to another justice of the peace.

A Real American: Are You One?

MoonHowler

 

 

John Bonfadini, of Christmas decoration fame in Sudley also writes for the NOVEC magazine, Cooperative Living. John has sat on the co-op board for years and was a professor at GMU. His kids have all gone through Prince William County Schools.

I occassionally glance at the Co-op Living Magazine. It often has some good articles and the classifieds are great. This month John had a great article under his Food for Thought column.  I hope you enjoy.

 

 

A Real American: Are You One?
by Dr. John E. Bonfadini, Ed.D., Professor Emeritus, George Mason University

John Bonfadini

Recently, I received an e-mail with an attached letter. It was one of the many political commentaries floating around on the Internet these days.

The letter, written by a teacher, expresses her concern for the direction America is heading. She used the term “real American,” implying that some Americans are real and others counterfeit. She obviously believes that her position is that of a real, and not a counterfeit, American. I thought about her use of the term real American and wondered if I am one; so I sought out a definition.

 

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PWC Declared Most Ethnically and Racially Diverse in Region

MoonHowler

Major thanks to Censored by Bvbl for writing the lead to this thread:

A regional report commissioned by Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly shows Northern Virginia to be a different place than it was thirty years ago. Amid large population growth, the outer Southern rim of Northern Virginia has seen a demographic change as a more ethnically and racially diversified population has sought affordable housing in the outer suburbs.

The study, which offers a preview of the 2010 census reports:

“Of the 270,000 people who moved to Northern Virginia between 2000 and 2007, 75 percent settled in Loudoun County, Prince William County, Manassas or Manassas Park.
In Prince William, the growth was driven almost entirely by minorities, who accounted for 94 percent of the population increase.

In contrast, the inner suburbs of Arlington County and Alexandria, once considered gateway communities for immigrants, have lost minority residents since 2000, becoming more white and more affluent. “

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