Am I an American … or a Georgian?
Are my rights restricted by the state in which I live, or do I have additional rights because of my residence?
There are plenty of states with a live-and-let-live attitude, tolerant of people who are different and live outside the mainstream, and others are much more live and let die.
Tennessee seems to be pushing to be considered a leader in the second category.
Tennessee seems to be trying to outdo Texas and Mississippi as the state that can make it toughest for women to exercise their right to an abortion. Two Republican legislators introduced a bill to enable men to claim paternity rights to prevent women from terminating their pregnancies.
This just after another Republican said the proper way to deal with books banned in the public schools was to burn them.
Is this really turning into that sort of country, where personal success matters less than making the people you dislike unhappy?
In fact, Republicans in almost every state where they have control have been introducing and passing laws designed to make it harder for Democrats to vote and/or live.
I did get a kick out of the Tennessee guy, Jerry Sexton. He represents a town called Bean Station in the state legislature. It’s not a perfect name, but it’s close.
When we moved east from California in 2010, Tennessee was actually at the top of my list of places to go. We were going to buy near Nashville, but my wife wanted our medical to be through Kaiser and Tennessee didn’t have Kaiser.
So we wound up in Georgia, a bright red state 12 years ago and becoming somewhat purple now. But my rights as an American shouldn’t be any different living in Georgia than they would be in Tennessee or Maryland or Minnesota.
We’re either Americans or we’re not.
Now there are plenty of people who will tell you that if you don’t like it where you live, you should move someplace you would like. This is about as sensitive a point of view as Mitt Romney telling young graduates if they can’t find a job, they should borrow money from their parents and start their own business.
With something like 70 percent of American families doing no better than just getting by, and with a higher and higher percentage of jobs in the service industry, upward and outward mobility isn’t all that easy these days.
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier — and more fair — to say that Americans in Tennessee or Georgia have the same rights as Americans in Colorado or California?