OK, But If EVERYONE Did It...

Let's pretend you're a bigoted jerk. Suppose you had an awful experience playing Super Mario Kart Dash as a child and now you have a real problem working with Italian people. Let's say you run a business and you don't hire any. Probably, unless you live in a mostly Italian neighbourhood, no one's going to notice. And hey, I'm all for a great workplace environment, and if I were Italian, I wouldn't want to work with an idiot like you, anyway.

But suppose EVERYONE has similar opinions on Italians. Where are they going to work and live?

Same thing with colleges. I'm reading about how colleges want to select graduates of high schools offering those classes they feel prepare students for courses at the college level. Sounds great, until you figure out that most universities dislike Christian coursework because it discourages individual thought and the like. Extremely conservative Christians can go rot, because they can accept a few Unitarians and call themselves a free and diverse campus :].

Housing? What if you don't want to sell to a former child molester? Or a totally legally practicing abortionist? Should there be these equal housing laws in place to make sure you're "fair" to all purchasers? Or maybe you're just a plain ol' bigot and don't like Mexicans. What then? Should we be of the opinion that it's your house and you can be a closed-minded pig if you want to hold out for a white purchaser?

I really hate the government getting all involved in every aspect of our lives, but it does bother me that people can get away with being nasty. I can understand a law stating that you don't have to rent to illegal immigrants and other criminals. And I can understand if you're looking to SHARE an apartment that you should be able to discriminate against gay folks or people who make you uncomfortable, because you'll be sharing a bathroom. But I don't understand Christians who say they wouldn't rent an apartment to a gay couple. That it's enabling their lifestyle. Maybe. But would they turn them away from getting their weekly staples at the local Safeway, too? Because nothing enables someone to keep on livin' like food. Where's the love? It doesn't mean you think what they're doing is the right thing if you were to rent them an apartment. Sigh.

OK, so I see both sides of this debate. It bothers me when people are supposed to be professional in a certain area, and then they act bigoted, though.

Our family physician informed us by registered mail that we were NOT to come back to his office ever again, except for emergencies. The office was kind to give us ONLY 30 days of this "grace" for emergencies, too. Oh, and we can transfer our medical records to someone else to the tune of $2 a page. Let's see, with six children and about 20-25 pages each, you figure out who's being treated badly. I think it's because we refused a vaccination on several occasions, but they also refused to give us the REASON for our dismissal. Nice.

So, what if ALL our local doctors on our insurance plan refused to accept patients who refused this vaccination? What would we do then? I can understand the physician having the right to his personal judgment and dismissing patients who don't follow his advice. But wow, if EVERYONE does stuff like that, my kids will be on the curb with bronchitis unless I want to visit the emergency room for every boo-boo. And know what? This attitude really doesn't make me want to get the other shots I *was* accepting before for my kids anyway. Who wins? I guess the answer is, the physician who takes bonuses from MY INSURANCE COMPANY for having great vaccination rates. Kick out the people who don't obey and you look great on paper. Yay.

We've found a physician who just doesn't vaccinate at *all* and we're happy with him. One of my very favourite things is that he doesn't ask stupid questions of my children and interrogate them during visits about how they get along with friends. He doesn't ask a lot of non-medical questions to me, either. They're all friendly there, but don't ask how many bottles J is getting and how much TV he watches, you know? I don't know what I'll do when he retires, because he's quite old. We'll enjoy this office while we can.

:]