Editor,
I read your editorial in the From The Backshop section of the most recent Current in Geist newsletter. I would like to present an opposing opinion. First of all, to your main point about Governor Pence receiving bad advice. From what informed point of view do you make this conclusion? Your article provides no backing to this statement nor sources demonstrating what type of advice that the Governor is receiving. We, the residents of Indiana, elected not only the Governor but the members of the Indiana Senate and House as well. As such, we need to have confidence that these elected officials are doing their jobs to the best of their ability and fairly representing us, their constituents, while doing so. The Governor is taking input and council from many areas of influence, as should be obvious from the efforts to swiftly make changes to legislation that is related to or will be effected by the RFRA.
You state that ‘Our state – and, more to the point, our business community – is under duress over the passage of a law that would allow, if not rewritten, business to discriminate based on sexual orientation and other viewpoints’. I’d like you to share any empirical data that supports that statement. All I have heard is the saber rattling of some companies and organizations that they will make a grandstanding move to show that they ‘will not tolerate bigotry’. But even those threats seemed to have moved on and focused on other topics. Where is any data that supports what, if any, fiscal effect these threats are actually having on our state’s economy? Not to mention that there are (now) nineteen other states with similar legislation. Are these companies boycotting those states too and are they all in peril of fiscal disaster? I think not.
Joel Parris
Fishers, IN