September 3, 2015, Chino Valley- I have thought a fair amount about the whole Kim Davis episode.  For those who have been living their bliss to the full, lately, she is the County Clerk, in Morehead, KY, who refuses to grant marriage licenses to gay couples, citing her Christian Faith.  For this defiance of Federal law, she has been jailed.

Thinking people have responded dispassionately to the matter.  I have friends, both gay and straight, who have said that Ms. Davis is getting what she deserves, period, without pontificating on what has been leaked to the public about her private life. I have read other commentary that disparages Kim Davis as a person- going far beyond what seems necessary to support the rule of law.  A commentary I heard on the radio, this morning, goes so far as to raise the matter of the human environment of eastern Kentucky, being somehow a factor in her thought processes.

I have been to eastern Kentucky, to Morehead, Ashland and Maysville, specifically.  I am not especially fond of Hillbilly jokes, any more than I am of disparaging “humour” directed at any particular group.  A professor at Berea College, interviewed this morning, pointed out that people in the mountains and rolling plains of Appalachia are as complex and diverse as people are anywhere else.  I have found that to be so.  There are informed and ignorant folk in any given community, from Uptown Manhattan and Beverly Hills, to the most downtrodden communities in Appalachia or the Mississippi Delta.

Ms. Davis’ issues seem to spring more from stubbornness and fear that her world is being turned upside down (which it is, in many respects), than from a lack of intelligence, or cultural stuntedness.  In that sense, she has plenty of company, all along the political and social spectra.  Attacking members of a given group, for the behaviour of some in the group, is akin to driving in reverse.  Maybe your points will stick, but the likelihood of unforeseen problems is greater.