I was minding my own business this morning, calmly reading the Washington Post on the metro ride into work, when all of sudden, this article just jumped out at me.
It seems as if North Carolina is one of a handful of states that has a law on the books against "cohabitation". The law dates from the early 1800's and is rarely enforced. But it turns out that a certain NC sheriff near Wilmington has it down pat, and wanted one of his slav--er, workers, to abide by it, or risk being canned.
The woman has enlisted the ACLU to file suit against the law.
Conservatives, who routinely trumpet their love of freedom and freedom fries, can't seem to spare any for regular Americans.
A spokesman from some outfit called the NC Family Policy Council (how goulish is that?) thinks the law is just dandy because "studies show" that people who cohabitate before, or in substitute for marriage are more prone to break up, leading to less stability in marriage as a result. Well, bless their hearts. Stability trumps freedom. We must surrender our freedom so the Family Policy Councils of the world can feel "stabile". Sound familiar? Freedom is Slavery?
Fortunately, a minister from a church in Raleigh introduced some regular folk sanity to the debate by contending that the state's got better things to do than to dictate people's private lives to that extent.
Amen.
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