American Values Alliance | Practical voice for progressive valuesAmerican Values Alliance | Practical voice for progressive valuesOver the weekend, several AVA contributors have had articles published on The Indianapolis Star’s op-ed page. This past Saturday Dr. Christopher Stack, a member of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan, wrote a piece entitled “High ranking doesn’t make us feel better”, which takes WellPoint CEO Angela Braly to task for insisting in a recent Forbes article that “health-care reform be done by the private sector, and in measured steps.” Dr. Stack rightly points out that WellPoint and other private-sector companies have benefited handsomely from our for-profit system of healthcare (its earnings have grown 55% since 2000 to $3 billion in 2006), but the number of uninsured Americans has risen to 47 million and WellPoint’s premiums over that time grew at 2.5 times the rate of inflation. Chris observes that while the market-driven approach to health care has made huge profits for WellPoint’s CEO (whose contract calls for a $2.4 million annual salary and 410,000 shares in stock options), it has miserably failed the American people. If WellPoint’s huge profits weren’t obscene enough, he also points out that WellPoint has spent $2 million in California in an effort to defeat Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to require insurers to offer coverage to all regardless of health status. Thanks in no small part to the pressure being applied by committed physicians like Dr. Stack, the New York Times reports that today Sen. Hillary Clinton today will lay out a plan to secure health insurance for all Americans, while severely limiting the ability of insurers like WellPoint to deny coverage or charge higher premiums to people with chronic illnesses and other medical problems. Keep us the great work, Chris!
Monday’s Star contains op-ed pieces by two more of AVA’s finest, Sheila Kennedy and Rev. Robert Giannini.
Executive Director Bil Browning appears on this week's podcast for the Indy Freethinkers. Jerame Davis, the AVA technical support person and co-owner (with Bil) of bilerico.com, also joins the conversation. The podcast focuses on SJR-7, the proposed amendment to the Indiana constitution that would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. Be sure to check it out!
The AVA held a press conference before today's House committee hearing on SJR-7, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. Speaking at the press conference were:
Below is the press release we handed out at the news conference:
As attorney colleagues of Indianapolis Star contributor Sheila Suess Kennedy, we take serious exception to Chris Stovall’s insinuations (“Get facts straight on same-sex issue”, Feb 15) that her February 13th commentary (“Sex, lies and politics”) comes anywhere close to violating the ethical rules governing Indiana lawyers. While Mr. Stovall is free to disagree with Ms. Kennedy’s views, his suggestion that her opinions are outside the bounds of the professional ethical standards governing attorneys is a form of rhetorical thuggery that undermines civil discourse and the cogency of his own arguments.
Mr. Stovall is an out-of-state advocate for amendments on marriage like SJR-7, currently before our legislature. Ms. Kennedy is making a zealous case for the proposition that passage of SJR7 will wipe out existing laws that bestow even a few “marriage-like” benefits such as domestic violence protections and domestic partner benefits, as has taken place in Michigan and Ohio under their own amendments. Proponents there also gave assurances that those amendments would only prohibit the state from recognizing gay marriage and then retreated in silence when courts interpreted ambiguous language to impact other rights and benefits.
The second paragraph of SJR-7 says: “This Constitution or any other Indiana law may not be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.” What is most disturbing about Mr. Stovall’s piece is his pulling out of thin air his “Law 101” definition of “construe”, insisting that it only applies when a statute is unclear. But this does not apply when, as would happen if SJR-7 were to be enacted, a judge would be told by the constitution itself NOT to construe a law a certain way. The public has differing opinions on same-sex marriage, civil unions, and related benefits. But all should be concerned over the current frenzy to ram through a proposal, the meaning of which even its proponents are in disagreement over. The should also be concerned over recent attempts to recklessly tinker with current Domestic violence protections to bolster their arguments on SJR-7.
Colleagues of Mr. Stovall urge the legislature to just pass off the whole mess to the voters and abdicate their responsibility to carefully consider and craft clear language worthy of what the drafters of our 1851 Constitution had in mind when they required two separate legislatures pass a proposed amendment before sending it to the people. Our lawmakers ought not to push this solemn duty off simply to satisfy a partisan political need to energize a constituent base in the November 2008 presidential elections. Moreover, attacks by a paid, out-of-state advocate on the integrity of a respectable public servant such as Ms. Kennedy are reprehensible and far beyond what should pass as acceptable public discourse.
by Kerry Blomquist, Bil Groth, Robb Minich, and Don Sherfick
Today's Indianapolis Star has a letter to the editor from the President and Executive Director of the American Values Alliance.
Statehouse leaders are exploiting civil-union issue
The American Values Alliance is a nonpartisan group of Hoosier citizens who seek to restore civility to political discourse and who believe that public policy should be based on facts and reason. We are disappointed that, because of a recent court decision in New Jersey, The Star chose to run a front-page story with a banner headline announcing the "return" of gay marriage as a "timely issue" in the upcoming election.
The Indiana Economic Digest recently ran a very flattering column by leading economist Morton J. Marcus. The column mentions the recent AVA brownbag lunch and issues a call for civility that we can only echo and praise.
Thanks for the kind words, Mr. Marcus. Your input and discussion topics were valuable and insightful. We hope to see you at our next event.
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