Huh?

by Don Wheeler


"I heard the news today, Oh Boy!..."

GLBT rights proposal withdrawn

So shouts the headline in today's South Bend Tribune. On top of the upsetting news, it's hard to miss the language, which could have come out of the Citizens for Puritan Values handbook. We were talking about closing a gap in human rights after all.

But my ire this morning is more directed at the sponsors - Charlotte Pfeifer and Randy Kelly. The Tribune quotes Ms. Pfeifer, "Randy and I put our heads together and decided this wasn't the time."

The article continues, "This is an important issue, Pfiefer said, and there wasn't time for the council to review the new information before the last meeting Dec. 10."

Huh?

Seems to me there's the same amount of time there was when she announced last week that she was going to introduce it. Also, putting heads together in advance seems like a better way to go.

Public announcements have consequences. Because of the time constraints, many of us were scrambling to put together support for this amendment. Now these people are in the awkward position of having to recontact potential allies and say "Never mind. Sorry I bothered you."

Ms. Pfeifer is right about one thing - this is an important issue. And to my mind, it's just had another setback.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.