Foster’s Daily Democrat today has an interview with State Senate candidate Bud Martin. His clear positions on two issues should be a lesson for already-elected State Senators.
About House Bill 436, which provides for full marriage equality, Bud Martin is quoted as saying, “I support it, and I do because my experience tells me that it is important to our fabric as a community.”
Then he refers to a couple of women who he says he has known for a long time. He observes, “to tell them that they don’t have that opportunity is something I can’t personally do.”
Then he brings up a very core question about this issue, one that shows how marriage equality is important in bringing up children. He says, “That said, and putting on my political hat, my opponent approved in the New Hampshire Legislature allowing gay folks to foster and adopt children. And when he now speaks that he’s against allowing same-sex marriage, how does he comport that with the fact that these same folks can be raising and fostering children but not have that commitment to each other?”
He also addresses the death penalty, pointing out he has been against it since he was a teenager when he debated the matter in Detroit at an American Legion contest.
“I’m against it now for a much broader perspective, and it’s really the fundamental issue of violence,” he said. “I don’t think we should spend a million dollars to take someone to death row in legal fees when those million dollars could be used for the dependents of the victim, where the dollars could be used to fund incarceration.”
Wow, this guy gets it. Let’s hope he’ll win election, but even if he fails because of the intense money being spent on the other side, he has set a standard for all of our politicians who have core beliefs, and a conscience, to live up to.
On issues such as these, it’s not about politics — it’s about doing the right thing. You can play politics and put your finger to the wind on bills dealing with taxes or building roads or bridges, but not on basic rights, life-and-death, discrimination, or the way we treat one another as human beings.