Platts votes for ENDA against conscience

From: DONALD HANK [mailto:zoilandon@msn.com]

 

Some of you may be in Platts disrtict, but at any rate, if your congress person voted for ENDA and hate crimes, it may be time for a strong message to the local GOP and church groups. Below is my letter about Todd Platts:

 

I spoke with Todd Platts' office when he voted for hate crimes and said he was voting in favor of muzzling Christians including pastors and priests. At his York office, I asked to speak with Platts, who had just come in the door ahead of me and all but ran upstairs. His assistant said he was not available.

In a letter, Platts said this hate crimes legislation would not allow speech to be targeted. I responded that the loss of the First Amendment rights is always incremental and this was the first ominous step. I also said 11 Christians (including an elderly African American grandmother) were already arrested in Philadelphia several years ago based on a state "hate" crime law.

Now Platts has voted for ENDA, which denies religious groups the right to hire employees according to their conscience. Recall that the Catholic adoption agencies in Mass. were forced to shut their doors when a similar law said they had to adopt children to same-sex homes.

The anti-conscience effect will be similar if ENDA is not vetoed.

There is a millionaire activist who is threatening legislators who vote against bad legislation like this and many previously staunch pro-family supporters in the legislature have been intimidated into voting against their conscience, at least to the extent they have one. I do not know if Mr Platts has succumbed to such bullying or not, and it doesn't matter. Both hate crimes and ENDA are unconstitutional in that they force people to act against their conscience, and if Platts doesn’t know that, he has no business claiming to represent us, because he is representing only himself.

Recently a teenage boy was caught in a sting operation trying to hire a hit man to kill his mother. Interestingly, although he said he hated his mom and admitted hate was the motive, he did not commit a hate crime under current "hate" crime law. In order to qualify as "hate," the crime must be committed against certain groups only, including women, minorities and gays. Although the targeted mom was a woman, the boy did not specifically hate women, only his mom, so under this absurd legislation, he is not guilty of a hate crime! Thus, the truly vulnerable are not in any way protected by this miscreant legislation! It only panders to special interest groups at the expense of the rest of us.

The Constitution says we all have the same rights to protection under the law. "Hate" crimes legislation says the Constitution doesn't matter.

I am tired of excuses. I think it is time for Todd Platts to go.

If the PA GOP wants to avoid having a Democrat elected, it is time they ran someone who still believes in that quaint document called the Constitution.

Don Hank