Written by Marianne Mansfield
April 1, 2015. April Fools Day. I wish we could blame the day for the tenor of the news of the day, but too much of it is dispiriting, disheartening and some, just plain foolish.
Let’s begin with the foolish. Take the restaurant sign in Hurricane. The bull first erected with enlarged genitalia and then defrocked of the same fiberglass adornment. The owner of the establishment claimed that the public uproar which ensued persuaded to have said genitalia removed. He just thought the bull looked better without something that resembled a party hat in that area. And, frankly, I agreed with him. Not that I’ve ever been that close to that end of a bull, or the other end, to be honest. But it did look like a party hat to me. Was the original appearance of the structure startling? Of course it was. Was it another shot in the ongoing skirmish between the restaurant owner and the city fathers (and maybe mothers)? Likely so, although such is denied by both sides. In the end, for those of us watching on the sidelines, it was all good, but foolish, fun. I forwarded the stories to a number of my friends in the Midwest just to show them what a good time can be had in southern Utah if you just look around – or up.
On a much more somber note, however, is the incredibly mean-spirited judgment being demonstrated by the legislators of Arkansas and Indiana (the state in which I was born and lived until I was 25, I’m not particularly proud to claim today) gives us pause. Why, one wonders. Just when it seemed that the battle over gay marriage was being laid to rest, when the state of Utah, of all places, enacted a bill which protected the rights of the LGBT community and the right to religious freedom in a spirit of compromise and respect, why now? And perhaps the answer for those legislators and governors in Arkansas and Indiana, it had to be now. It must have seemed as though the train was leaving the station and this was their one final chance to blow up the tracks. The upside to the stories, and it is significant, is the velocity with which the blow-back blew in and drove said governors back to avowed postures of reasonableness. No small thing, as the threats of boycotts and significant economic repercussions ensued.
The downside to the stories, of course, is that the stunt was tried at all. Will the cases in Arkansas and Indiana be the end of such maliciousness? Probably not. Unfortunately I expect to see some other states try again to put forth anti-equality legislation in the guise of religious freedom. I expect, sadly, that those who attempt to push it will do so, hoping that they have veiled their bids in verbiage enough different on its face from that of the soon-to-fail bills that they will go unnoticed. I don’t think it will work, guys. This train is leaving the station. Get on or step aside.
And finally, most tragically, the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. The co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, who is widely believed to have brought down the plane intentionally, had suffered from depression. In 2009, during his flight training, Lubitz told his instructors that he had had a “previous episode of severe depression.”
There is a difficult, and one wonders if not impossible, balance to be struck here between the privacy rights of someone who once suffered from depression, and the expectation of safety of the 153 passengers and crew who perished on March 24. Does a past struggle with mental illness forever stigmatize an individual? If so, does that not diminish the incentive to overcome the disorder? Why work hard in therapy? Why deal with the weighty side-effects of psychotropic drugs? Of course to feel better, but what if feeling better isn’t enough to let a person get back to her/his livelihood? Or, should some professions be closed to those who have suffered mental illness? Perhaps those professions in which the lives of others depend on the functioning of another person – like a co-pilot.
If I were a family member of someone who died in that crash, I think I know how I would answer the questions above. Of course, we expect our lives to be protected from those who are at risk of endangering us. Ban those who have experienced mental illness from anything more life-threatening than yard maintenance. But, I know in my heart that isn’t fair. I just don’t know what is.
Finally, on this funky day on which tricks and rouses are perpetrated on friends and family, I give you this. If you haven’t seen it, sit back and enjoy. If you have seen the Irish Priest wedding gift, watch it again. It is simply a reason to smile. In light of all that we face, it provides us an opportunity to relax and be happy for a few minutes.
Marianne Mansfield has lived in Southern Utah since 2010. She and her husband followed their grandchildren to this area fromMichigan. In her former life she was a public school educator. More than half of her career was spent as an elementary principal, which is why her response to most challenges is, “This isn’t my first rodeo.” She grew up in Indiana, and attended Miami of Ohio,Ball State University and Michigan State. She is a loyal MSU Spartan and Detroit Tiger baseball fan. She has been writing fiction and opinion since her retirement in 2004.
