Sorry about the headline, but that’s all I can think when I look back at when more than two dozen Black ministers showed up at the Statehouse this month to protest in favor of HJR-3, the marriage amendment.
I spent all day Monday at the Statehouse watching the Senate Rules Committee testimony on HJR-3, the amendment that would further ban same-sex marriage in Indiana by putting it into the state Constitution. For the record, the Indiana Senate passed the amendment, in its changed form, 32-17.
Now you all know where I stand on this issue. If you don’t like gay marriage then don’t marry someone who’s gay, problem solved.
Now, with that said, while I disagree with the supporters of HJR-3, for the most part, they are good and decent people. They are wrong, but not bad.
What offended me though was the 30 something Black preachers and their flock who showed up in support of the amendment. They crowded the halls, they held signs, they did all the stuff you’re supposed to do at a rally. Why is this offensive?
Well, to paraphrase my late grandfather, “Where the hell have these Negroes been when a lot of other important issues were taking place at the Legislature?”
Although this is a short session, there have been plenty of issues out there where these ministers have been pretty much absent.
For example, in the area education reform, the Legislature is debating whether to provide vouchers for low-income families so their kids can attend a quality preschool. There is also legislation out there that would allow teachers to transfer to charter schools without having to suffer a cut in pay.
And one of my favorite pieces of legislation is one that gives Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Lewis Ferebee more flexibility to improve the district’s overall performance. And as all these issues were being discussed, debated and decided, I don’t recall any of these preachers showing up.
And the fun doesn’t stop there.
As lawmakers continue to look at ways to close the skills gap so we don’t have thousands of unfilled job openings and thousands of people unqualified to take them, these guys, once again, were AWOL!
In the debates that impact their communities such as tax reform, reforming the criminal code, road construction and other quality of life issues all I saw were tumbleweeds.
But when it comes to an issue that doesn’t create one job, improve education for one child in a classroom, or help raise the income of one Hoosier family, the natives get restless and come flocking out in droves!
And then when they get a chance to get the spotlight like Pastor Andrew Hunt III of Indianapolis who was given the opportunity to deliver the opening prayer, instead he put his backside in full view by basically promising eternal damnation, hellfire and brimstone against any lawmaker who did not vote to restore the second sentence in the marriage amendment and put it on the ballot in 2014.
Seriously? Are we stuck in a bad episode of “Sanford and Son”?
These guys have ample opportunity to come down to the Statehouse to make a difference and this is the one they pick? Instead of worrying about same-sex marriage, maybe they should spend more time worrying about why not enough Black people are getting married before they have children? We all know a child born to a single mother with little education is very likely to grow up to be a menace to society. I haven’t seen any data showing children raised by same-sex parents grow to be lawbreakers, maybe that’s because there isn’t any.
Any self-respecting Black person should be ashamed and embarrassed by what the jokers pulled last week.
Abdul-Hakim Shabazz is an attorney, political commentator and publisher of IndyPolitics.org. You can email comments to him at abdul@indypolitics.org.
