It's Alright. Right?

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he’s in

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please him

--Bob Dylan, It's alright Ma

Although it seems a long time ago it was just last Monday, June 1, that the City Council chamber erupted in a surreal display of short-circuitry. Epithets were pitched, and caught by the electronic glove of WAVE TV's news cameras. Seemingly settled expressions of tolerance were recanted, then tossed onto the chamber's floor to be beaten into unrecognizability, as though an errant snake had slithered under the door. 

Since then, a trip to the hardware store yielded this observation, "the City Council in Jeffersonville is pathetic too". (emphasis added)

At a public event for a Historic Society, "if a Republican had uttered the same kind of intolerant, homophobic remarks, (as were heard at the City Council last Monday) the Democrats would have crucified him, and the entire party. Looks kind of like a double standard."

A chance encounter with a fellow Councilman opens with, "how's it going, you lyin' piece of shit?"  Je suis L.P.O.S.?

As a result of the purposefully obtuse characterization of my attempt to reach a bit of compromise on the issue of spoken prayer at a Council meeting, I've been called a racist, anti-prayer, in cahoots with un-named forces outside the Council, and beholden to a society-destroying agenda promoting human rights. I've also been reminded that thousands of voters will remember that I was out to strip prayer from the City 
Council.  I realize this controversy is not about me. But, as one maligned in such a ridiculous campaign to hoist the flag so the Christian Soldiers could March to War (by way of vote centers), I'll simply say, I'm sick of it.

I would add that many other bodies meet to conduct public business, without a ceremonial prayer or invocation at the start of the proceedings. (Board of Works, Redevelopment Commission, Sewer Board, County Council, County Commissioners, and other bodies no doubt, which I haven't named)

While the entire sordid evening was rife with the kind of bilious empty-headed rhetoric that has kept Jon Stewart on the air for many years now, I am simply addressing here the anti-prayer elements of the sideshow.  What follows in italics is authored by me. I report. You decide.

WHEREAS: It is recognized that New Albany's Common Council meetings have opened with a Christian prayer,
WHEREAS: It is also recognized that some members do not believe sanctioned prayer is an appropriate form of expression in civic or government meetings,
NOW THEREFORE: The following outline of a compromise between these two diametrically opposed views is offered as a way of honoring both views through the individual preference of  each Council member:
1. The Council will allow each member to open a meeting on a rotational basis.
2. The rotation shall be established by District number, just as the Council desks are arranged, until each member has been given the opportunity for opening remarks, whereupon the rotation will begin again.
3. The Council member who is responsible for the opening remarks following the rotation described, will be allotted one minute. The member can use none, any, or all of the time allotted.
4.The opening remarks shall be respectful and limited by the normal decorum expected in a public meeting, subject to the gavel of the chair.
5. The Council member's opening remarks may be a prayer, a reading, an historical note, or any other expression as limited by number 4 above.
6.The opening remarks are to be limited to expressions of an inspirational, centering, or focusing nature. The remarks shall not be used for campaigning or promotion of members' proposal or activities.
7. The Common Council shall address deviations from the prescribed format outlined here, and it shall revise with additional stipulations as need.

That was the basic idea which was then distilled into an amendment, as follows:

A Council member at every Common Council meeting, in rotation, may open the meeting with his or her choice of a prayer, a reading of an inspirational, commemorative or historical nature, or a moment of silent reflection.

What follows here is part of a note to Council members relating to the amendment above:

It is clear the U.S. Supreme Court rulings allow prayer at public meetings. It is equally clear that some citizens are so fully opposed to prayer in a governmental setting that they would resort to theatrical tactics to prove their point.

I believe a good way we can protect the dignity of the City Council  (yes, I actually wrote those words)  while respecting religious expression, and non-religious expression, as the Constitution and Court demands, is to take personal responsibility for the opening remarks at the Council meetings into our own hands. The proposal I've drawn up does that, I think. It allows prayers in the Council chamber, but makes any such prayers the responsibility of the members who choose to offer them. It likewise allows members who don't believe in the mixing of  government and religion to express a sentiment in keeping with their beliefs. I believe it respects both sides of the issue while keeping the responsibility for the Council within the Council where, I believe, it belongs.

Objectively, can anyone playing with a full, non-demagogic, deck read that as an anti-prayer proposal?

I don't know if there's anything else to be done about this aberrant behavior. That's up to others to decide. I'm just one Councilman who probably has been/is being targeted for defeat because of these antics. But it is worth remembering that the State of Indiana has now coughed up two million dollars to help Gov. Mike Pence get his foot out of his mouth over the tainting of Indiana's image caused by the intolerance of the RFRA law he supported, which is the genesis of this local conflict. Beyond that cost, about a million and a half dollars were wasted in a vain attempt by the state's Attorney General to hold back the tide of history regarding same-sex marriage. So, to date, the fight which sparked the local tempest has cost the state about three and a half million dollars, and little evidence exists to show success burnishing the state's image.

The flow of history moves endlessly. It will leave some of us behind, but it won't be stopped.