Here’s the open line and today’s video news roundup. Also:
* HOW OTHERS SEE US: The Boston Globe sent a reporter to visit Eureka Springs, soon to vote on a civil rights ordinance for gay people, and also nearby Berryville. Interesting comments in both places. Reporter couldn’t find a florist unwilling to provide a bouquet to a gay couple, though Rep. Bob Ballinger assured the reporter many businesses were upset about such equal rights measures.
Rhonda Oberg’s Nita-Faye Flowers and Gifts is just the kind of business many would see as benefiting from a so-called religious freedom law, which could allow her to refuse to sell flowers for gay weddings. And conservative Berryville is just the kind of place where such a law might be welcomed.
But even in a place where churches outnumber restaurants, many of those often touted as the law’s beneficiaries — such as florists and caterers — don’t see an overwhelming need. In fact, some question its very spirit.
“Discrimination is discrimination,” said Oberg, who has no qualms offering bright wedding bouquets to the neighboring gay-friendly town of Eureka Springs. “It’s ridiculous.”
And take a bow, Berryville Mayor Tim McKinney:
But here in this Republican stronghold, locals paint a picture far less stark than that portrayed by the loudest voices of the religious right. Regions like this one, where faith and daily life intertwine, reveal a country grappling with a much more nuanced and complex divide between personal convictions and the cultural shift over same-sex marriage.
“A lot of people are shaking their heads and saying, ‘Why?’” said Mayor Tim McKinney of Berryville, who labels himself a “limpin’, yellowdog Democrat.”
“The God I know, he lives in everybody.”
Jerry Cox just fainted.
* SHOOT EM UP HUCK: In the video, the Huckster brandishes his gun bona fides. He’ll kill the crap out of anybody who comes in his house then call the morgue. And so on. Huck says guns equal freedom. I still say it wasn’t firepower, but speech that tore down the Iron Curtain.