While southern states (Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia) enact legislation that legitimizes intolerance, New York sits by, impassively.
It is not only the direct impact of these laws that is upsetting, but also their unintended consequences.
These laws will permit people to refuse services to others owing to their personal beliefs.
I recall people believing that “….Jews are the spawn of the Devil.”
Because Jews look like everyone else, does this mean that Jews should be required to wear Jewish star arm bands in Mississippi or North Carolina so that some bigots would not make the mistake of providing services to them?
New York can do something.
New York citizens send (as taxes) one dollar to Washington and get $.65 back.
Many of these southern states get back as much as two dollars for every dollar they pay in federal taxes.
I would like to have New York pass a law that would set a dollar for dollar limit, capping what is sent to Washington by New Yorkers.
When New Yorkers file with the IRS, calculate what is owed, send a check for 2/3 to the IRS and split the 1/3, half to the State of New York and keep the rest.
Would this provoke a constitutional crisis? Yes, but maybe it is time for one. Who knows?
If the Supreme Court remains split four-to four, we may get away with it!
New York would stop subsidizing intolerance.
Gerald Peretsman
Great Neck
