A student-operated publication at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The Oak Leaf

A student-operated publication at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The Oak Leaf

A student-operated publication at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The Oak Leaf

Console with more than money

The idiocy of America today states that gluing a $100 dollar bill over a broken, bleeding heart somehow staunches the flow. It does not. Not to mention the $100 dollar bill in question is often cut in half, and the heart-hole is gaping.

Clay Greene and Harold Scull were a Guerneville couple living their old age together, a 25-year long relationship.

Two years ago Scull died in a hospital and Greene was denied the right to be by Scull’s side. Greene recently won a $600,000 lawsuit against Sonoma County for the exclusion from the end of his partner’s life, of which he will see $275,000; $300,000, will go to the lawyers and the remainder to Scull’s estate.

It is absolutely absurd that lawyers get more money than the plaintiff. However, more absurd is the reason why Greene won. “It just made economic sense to stop the bleeding,” the county’s lawyer Gregory Spaulding said. “To end the case and avoid all expenses and costs.”

Sonoma County is sued for discriminating against 25-year partners because of their sexual orientation, so the county tosses him and his lawyers a $575,000 bone and dusts off their hands. On to the next!

So what now? Santa Rosa now has $600,000 less to spend on schools, food for the homeless or anything else. Yet they have not made any policy changes for same sex couples. Seems like a hollow victory to me.

This reminds me of a completely different case in all respects, from about 10 years ago, but one with a far more desirable outcome. This was a case against the Bakersfield Police Department for applying pepper-spray to cotton swabs and then opening activist’s eyes to apply the pepper-spray directly to the eyeball.

The activists won after a long court battle and numerous rallies outside the courthouse. The plaintiff’s were each awarded $1 in monetary compensation. In addition, the court case changed the police department’s policy on the use of pepper-spray; it now states officers may not apply pepper-spray to the eyeball.

If the government is sued for improper conduct and its response is to throw money at it in the cheapest possible way, nothing changes. The policy stays the same and the government does it again. All the government has to do if anyone sues for improper conduct is throw money away.

Ultimately this helps no one, except the bigots who keep a couple of gay guys apart while one is dying. They are free to do it again because the policy hasn’t changed. The lawyers walk away laughing all the way to the bank, a 77-year-old man gets to console his heartache with cash, and a California county has one more reason to be cash-strapped in this recession.

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