The traffic is as thick as the humidity, and New Orleans is the most humid place on the planet. Sitting in traffic is not my idea of a vacation, but here we are. Tired of listening to Britney Spears synthesized bleating, I turn the radio off in disgust.
With nothing else to do in the plodding traffic, my eyes catch a few license plates. The person in front of me has an LSU plate. In the next lane, which is actually progressing, I spy a Masonic symbol on a license. Along comes a U.S. government tag, and then a “Louisiana Black Bear” plate.
Amid the absurd messages and pictures adorning Louisiana License plates, here is one you won’t see: a pelican (the state bird) carrying a swaddled tot from his beak alongside the words “Choose Life.”
This week a federal judge forbade the state to issue the specialty “Choose Life” plates, even though the Louisiana legislature approved their creation last year.
In his decision US District Judge Stanwood Duval writes that the tags “discriminate against another viewpoint” precisely because the lawmakers voted to make the licenses a “forum for speech.” Now hold on a minute, your honor.
Ambling home I spotted a license that read “Don’t Drink and Drive.” The legislature presumably approved this “speech” too. Using Duval’s reasoning; isn’t the state discriminating against the intoxicated? Why, I can practically hear the outcry of the snookered masses streaming through the French Quarter right now.
And what about those “Protect the Environment” tags? Isn’t that discriminating against polluters? If the government is concerned about the feelings of abortion rights activists, surely the same charity should be afforded the anti-environment crowd.
Judge Duval in an amazing bit of reasoning went on to say that “those who want to express another point of view should not have to wait a year for the legislature to open the license plate forum, particularly in light of the state’s pointed espousal of the published opinion to ‘Choose Life’.”
Fine. To repair this heinous breech of free expression rights, may I suggest that the governor instantly call a special session of the legislature and demand that the body consider a “Choose Death” license plate. That is the other “point of view,” isn’t it?
I wonder how many Louisianans will fork over 25 bucks to slap “Choose Death” or even “Choose Abortion” on the back of their Buick. Thus far no abortion rights group has petitioned the legislature for their own personalized tags.
In their initial complaint the plaintiff in this case, The Center For Reproductive Law and Policy (representing the National Coalition Of Jewish Women and Rabbi Robert Loewy) argued that the plates violated the separation of Church and State. The court wisely rejected that idea.
Today whenever an idea conflicts with the secular mindset it is instantly labeled: “religious” (i.e., fundamentalist, fringe, loony, wacko, nutcase) so it can be easily evicted from the public debate.
Since when did the choice to live and allow others to do the same become a religious creed? Whether a person is an atheist, an agnostic, or a discriminated-against pagan drunkard lying face-down in a Bourbon Street gutter, the love of life is built into our very nature as human beings. As Americans, how can we claim to protect liberty and the pursuit of happiness without first embracing life itself? It is the supreme prerequisite.
When a fuzzy, innocuous phrase like “Choose Life” is depicted as if it were the opening words of Mein Kampf, people of good will need to take notice.
A full trial is expected in the near future. But for the time being, the “Choose Life” tags are forbidden in Louisiana. They are, however, available (for now) in Florida, but a court challenge is pending.
Personally, I think specialty plates are ridiculous. Why give the government extra cash to express yourself? That’s why bumper stickers were created. But if good people want to go to the trouble of expressing their love for life on the back of their motor vehicles, they should certainly be allowed to do so.
In the meantime, whether the “Choose Life” folks get to keep their tags or not, I would like to offer an amendment for the consideration of the Louisiana legislature. How about a new specialty license for all the opponents of these tags: “Get A Life!”
