BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...

Subject: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 09:11 PM

Interracial couple denied marriage license

La. justice of the peace cites concerns about any children couple might have

The Associated Press
updated 3:41 p.m. CT, Thurs., Oct . 15, 2009

HAMMOND, La. - A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist.

"I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house," Bardwell said. "My main concern is for the children."

[end quote]

Some additional inanity at the link.

John

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Janie
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:14 PM

Jaysus!!!

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:19 PM

I have a lot of concern for HIS children.........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: artbrooks
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:35 PM

Where's he been for the past 40 years?

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 11:10 PM

note: he said,"I never said they couldn't be married, only that *I* wouldn't marry them."

I'd guess he is looking for a court case....*shrug*

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: artbrooks
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 11:43 PM

Jerk...

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: jacqui.c
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 12:39 PM

I wonder what the President will think about this......

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Alice
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 12:44 PM

Yeah, those poor interracial kids who grow up to be president of the United States.

This guy is getting fired. The LA governor has already weighed in on it.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: open mike
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 12:57 PM

Nanci Griffith has honored an inter-racial couple who are featured
in the title song of her latest album on The Loving Kind.

The title track, emblematic of the album's story songs, refers to Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 landmark civil rights case that once and for all ended the ban on interracial marriages in the U.S. Richard and Mildred Loving were a married white man and black woman who were forced to leave their native state of Virginia under threat of arrest because of the state's Jim Crow law prohibiting marriages between different races.

"I read Mildred Loving's obituary in The New York Times last year and it just floored me," recalls Griffith. Tragically, Richard died in a tragic car accident just months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the couple's favor. "She never remarried and in her last interview, just before she passed away, she expressed hope that their case would eventually be the open door to the legalization of same sex marriage."

An earlier album of hers (Hearts In Mind)
had another song about an inter-racial couple....Love Conquers All

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: artbrooks
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 01:08 PM

Can't fire him - he's elected.   I understand they are looking at impeachment procedures.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 01:10 PM

The silly twit has announced he does not regret the decision. What a busybody.


A

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Paul Burke
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 01:13 PM

Sick country. Saying that, I don't know many that aren't.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: artbrooks
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 01:16 PM

Not a sick country, please. A sick individual in a very rural area, living in the past and his own closed-off mind.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 02:15 PM

But evidently elected by a bunch of other sick people.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: gnu
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 02:23 PM

Sick... mild.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: jeddy
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 02:35 PM

now the cat is back, i will be keeping an eye on this.

dispicable, disturbed and backwards is what i would used to describe him.

take care all

jade x x x

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 03:58 PM

This has got to be illegal. I'm still waiting to hear on that one...

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Alice
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 04:17 PM

Fired was the wrong word for me to use,
but he was wrong and there will be consequences.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Alice
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 04:24 PM

"This is a clear violation of constitutional rights and federal and state law. ... Disciplinary action should be taken immediately -- including the revoking of his license," the Republican governor said.

Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-Louisiana, said the committee should "use its authority to have Justice Bardwell dismissed from his position."

CNN.com report CLICK HERE

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: SharonA
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 04:20 PM

His dismissal can't happen soon enough.

SharonA, first-cousin-once-removed to an interracial child (actually he's a young man now!)

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: SharonA
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 10:57 AM

Heard a portion of an interview with Bardwell on the radio this morning. To say he was not well-spoken would be an understatement... and sheesh, what a bigot. Of course he claimed not to be a racist, and part of his defense was to say: "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom."

Forty-plus years after the Jim Crow era, it amazes me that the use of a single toilet by people of different races is still such an issue that a white man would be so bigoted as to point at his desegregated john as "proof" that he is not!

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Wesley S
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 11:03 AM

Did he mention if the bathroom was indoors?

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 11:08 AM

Does he also believe the Holocaust never happened?

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Greg F.
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 11:29 AM

Is the state anti-miscegenation[sic] statute still on the books in Louisiana?

I believe both Mississippi and Alabama - those bastions of freedom in the land of the free- have still not rescinded theirs tho they have been declared unconstitutional & are lo longer enforced.

Up until 1967, 16 states still enforced laws barring interracial marriage, cohabitation and/or sex.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 11:56 AM

One question that comes to me is whether a justice of the peace in that state even has the power to refuse to issue a marriage license, assuming of course the I's are dotted and the T's crossed, and all the blanks on the form are truthfully filled in, and the bride's and grooms ages make marriage possible under the law.

If he is not given unfettered discretion, then a lawsuit could and probably should be filed against him, to force him to perform his duty.

And as to his claimed concern for the potential children, a couple more comments:

1. Who says there will be children? Has the couple involved declared that they will have children? There's quite a few other objectives in being married other than procreation. If no children, then his claimed reason is completely empty.

2. Has he never heard of children born out of wedlock? Since he expresses concern over "potential" children, how about the potential negative effects on potential children of parents not allowed or intimidated from marrying?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Nov 09 - 11:19 PM

La. justice quits after interracial flap

He refused to marry a couple because bride was white, groom was black
The Associated Press

updated 8:07 p.m. CT, Tues., Nov . 3, 2009

BATON ROUGE, La. - A Louisiana justice of the peace who refuses to marry interracial couples resigned Tuesday, after weeks of calls for his ouster from civil rights groups and several public officials, including the governor.

Keith Bardwell quit with a one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne: "I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."

Gov. Bobby Jindal called Bardwell's resignation "long overdue."

John

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 12:33 AM

Good!

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: SharonA
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 01:47 PM

Great news!!! Thanks, John.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 05 Nov 09 - 09:10 AM

Thanks for the update.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: kendall
Date: 05 Nov 09 - 09:29 AM

The dinosaurs all died off because they could not cope with a changing environment. This asshole is just one of the leftovers.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: jacqui.c
Date: 05 Nov 09 - 12:08 PM

One less bigot, thank goodness.

Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Nov 09 - 03:17 PM

But the people who voted for him are still out there.