Riptide told you about Amendment 1, the ballot initiative that would basically change nothing, except remove a tiny passage in our state constitution that was rooted in racism. There wasn't really any logical reason to vote against it (every other state that had similar language has since removed it), but somehow 52 percent of us did.
Now the socialist newsletter known as the New York Times is here to subtly shame us.
“It’s terribly disappointing,” said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. “At a time when our country has turned away from a history of racism, we have left a racist and anti-immigrant provision in Florida’s Constitution.”Ms. Little and others who supported removing the provision said that a mix of confusion and prejudice seemed to have led to defeat.
Apparently Floridians got to the voting booth and didn't really have all the information on what they were voting on. Imagine! Which kind of makes you wonder about the viability of this whole ballot iniative thing (at least in the manner we've used it now). Seriously, Floridians tell pollsters by a large majority they're down with civil unions yet somehow voted to ban them anyway.
Winnie Tang, president of the Florida chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, hopes to get the amendment on the ballot again. But the Florida legislature could easily undue the language with a three-fifths vote in each house. Every other state has gotten rid of similar remnants of a racist legacy. Why hasn't Florida?
