Awaiting the 2014 elections, we watch and listen to commercial after commercial about everything but the candidate. In our area of Northern Michigan, this tactic of shallowness seems to be working. I was at a forum earlier this week where a candidate, Lee Chatfield, commented several times about “protecting our liberties”, yet he would like to pass legislation religiously based that would not allow some people to have the liberty of being equal in our society. He made it clear that he would not approve of an expansion to the Elliot Larsen Act to include LGBT. I couldn’t believe what I heard. All I could think of was how he may have been prior to 1965 with minorities looking for equality? Or in 1919 when women were looking to vote? In any case, as I traveled around Little Traverse Bay last week, several ultra-conservative voters commented that they like Chatfield’s rhetoric re: protecting liberties. I would suggest that the only liberty he wishes to protect is that of the average white man with some biblical superiority over everyone else. Using his vernacular, God help us if he gets elected…wait, what if God is a black woman who happens to be a lesbian?