I had to read Senator Edie McClafferty’s reply to Susanne’s inquiry three times. I am pretty sure that it is what Orwell called double speak. In other words, it deliberately distorts or obscures the meaning of what was being said.
Basically, both Suzanne and I wanted to know why people with sincerely held religious convictions, (church daycares, etc.) were not being offered the same protections Senator McClafferty wishes to extend to unions. Again, I do not have an issue with unions, just disparity in treatment of Montanans.
Secondly, I am a Constitutional coach and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the First Amendment does not address unions at all. The rights detailed in the First Amendment are; religion, speech/press, peaceable assembly and petition the government for grievances.
It is sad that a teacher doesn’t know this. It is an embarrassment that a state senator doesn’t know this. It is a travesty that a vice chair of the Montana Senate Education Committee doesn’t know the United States Constitution.
—Stu Goodner, Boulder
