I love/hate my state.
I love the variety it brings. Within a sixty minute drive or less my family can be in the mountains, desert, beach, lake or city.
I love the quality of live we are afforded. Our children have great access to education, both at the K-12 and graduate level.
I love how the majority of the people we interact with on a daily basis are good, decent, friendly human beings …
Unless of course the conversation turns to one the many *sins* the majority conservatives put in their cross-hairs or a conversation contradictory to the majority religion.
Over the years I endured their attack on smokers. I remember paying .75 cents/pack for cigarettes when I first started smoking … and finally quitting when that same pack of cigarettes cost me in the $3.60 to $3.75 a pack. I didn’t quit because they were right, but because I was sick and tired of a) smoking, and b) paying they chicken shit sin tax.
I have also endured their relentless stranglehold on alcohol sales. If you want to drink quality alcohol you either take the importing onto yourself or you buy it at a premium from the State. Not because they the most efficient regulators or administrators (link to audit problems report), but because they want our cash/tax and the ability to control us … oh, and “hide” the alcohol sales in restaurants behind “Zion” curtains.
Those two examples alone, in my mind, is the separation the difference between good and great.
Except Utah isn’t great, much less good. Utah is a quagmire of religious indifference and social intolerance. Which frankly confuses me to no end because so many people, at an individual level, are really good human beings until the topic of gay rights surfaces.
While the Desert News editor’s minds are ‘asploding over the “Judicial Tyranny” and conservatives state wide are undoubtedly reeling from the 10th Circuit Court’s strike down of the Utah state law against same sex marriage, I for one sit back and smile. It has been a long time coming. Admittedly, in my wildest dreams, I always thought Utah would be the 51st state to allow same sex marriages. I know, there are only 50. I seriously thought we’d have to admit the 51st state into the union before this day would ever come. No sarcasm here.
While I know this battle is in its infancy. I salute, with self imported alcohol, the fine gay folks who simply want to have the same legal rights afforded to us heteros who happened be born “right” as defined by our majority neighbors.
Cheers! Merry Christmas! Go on! Get your gay marriage on!
Oh, and big Fuck You to Gayle Ruzicka. You’re on the wrong side of history bitch. I relish the day of your ilks insignificance.
