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BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...

15 Oct 09 - 09:11 PM (#2747102)
Subject: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: JohnInKansas

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


15 Oct 09 - 10:14 PM (#2747132)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Janie

Jaysus!!!


15 Oct 09 - 10:19 PM (#2747134)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: catspaw49

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

Spaw


15 Oct 09 - 10:35 PM (#2747141)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: artbrooks

Where's he been for the past 40 years?


15 Oct 09 - 11:10 PM (#2747150)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Bill D

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*


15 Oct 09 - 11:43 PM (#2747161)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: artbrooks

Jerk...


18 Oct 09 - 12:39 PM (#2747188)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: jacqui.c

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


18 Oct 09 - 12:44 PM (#2747194)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Alice

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.


18 Oct 09 - 12:57 PM (#2747204)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: open mike

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


18 Oct 09 - 01:08 PM (#2747219)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: artbrooks

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


18 Oct 09 - 01:10 PM (#2747223)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Amos

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


A


18 Oct 09 - 01:13 PM (#2747231)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Paul Burke

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


18 Oct 09 - 01:16 PM (#2747238)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: artbrooks

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


18 Oct 09 - 02:15 PM (#2747310)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: McGrath of Harlow

But evidently elected by a bunch of other sick people.


18 Oct 09 - 02:23 PM (#2747318)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: gnu

Sick... mild.


18 Oct 09 - 02:35 PM (#2747333)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: jeddy

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


18 Oct 09 - 03:58 PM (#2747405)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Mrrzy

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


18 Oct 09 - 04:17 PM (#2747422)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Alice

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


18 Oct 09 - 04:24 PM (#2747428)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Alice

"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


19 Oct 09 - 04:20 PM (#2748194)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: SharonA

His dismissal can't happen soon enough.

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


20 Oct 09 - 10:57 AM (#2748701)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: SharonA

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!


20 Oct 09 - 11:03 AM (#2748706)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Wesley S

Did he mention if the bathroom was indoors?


20 Oct 09 - 11:08 AM (#2748709)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Dorothy Parshall

Does he also believe the Holocaust never happened?


20 Oct 09 - 11:29 AM (#2748721)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Greg F.

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.


20 Oct 09 - 11:56 AM (#2748746)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Uncle_DaveO

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


03 Nov 09 - 11:19 PM (#2759121)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: JohnInKansas

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


04 Nov 09 - 12:33 AM (#2759141)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: katlaughing

Good!


04 Nov 09 - 01:47 PM (#2759546)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: SharonA

Great news!!! Thanks, John.


05 Nov 09 - 09:10 AM (#2760075)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: Desert Dancer

Thanks for the update.


05 Nov 09 - 09:29 AM (#2760088)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: kendall

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


05 Nov 09 - 12:08 PM (#2760202)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: jacqui.c

One less bigot, thank goodness.


05 Nov 09 - 03:17 PM (#2760316)
Subject: RE: BS: If Only It Was A Surprise ...
From: McGrath of Harlow

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