The Office of Mideast Governor TJ

[Mechaman]

Gentlemen,

Consider this the last compliment you will receive from me in this election cycle:

I hope you enjoy your upcoming retirement.

But seriously, I hear that the Appalachian Trail is nice this time of the year.

With that said, I wish you guys luck and I hope that both of our sides can bring a special kind of energy to make this election game season a memorable one.

-Future Assemblyman Mechaman.

[Mechaman]

Frankly, Mr. Governor, sir, I won't be shocked if you sign this bill. I know you and I disagree on many issues and that basic human dignity for all Atlasians is one of them. However, I beseech thee in the bowels of Christ to veto this bill. This is nothing but an attempt to dehumanize and debase the millions of LGBT students all across your great region and to teach them that they are less than full citizens of this nation, less than human even. I understand that you have your reasons for opposing full civil rights for LGBT Atlasians, but I do hope that you are not so far gone as to make it official government policy that they are worse than their heterosexual brothers and sisters. A marriage is a marriage, no matter how gay, and it is inhumane to demean the millions of happily married gay couples all across the Mideast and Atlasia at-large (including Mr. Flo and myself) to declare us *inherently* worse than couples such as Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries.

I was going to make my own personal appeal, but I guess I can start off with this point.

TJ, I know you subscribe to a very religious Catholic teaching about morality.  However, based off of what I have observed, I stubbornly hold to a belief that you know that using the government in this manner is wrong.  Nobody's life is going to be saved if you sign this into law.

Do.  Not.  Sign.  This.  Legislation.

If you sign this, then it is war.

[Mechaman]

Good evening friends.

As almost all of you are aware, I have been remained publically silent about the Mideast Promotion of Marriage in Education Act recently passed by the Assembly. That silence will end tonight. I have been following closely to the words of all those who have contacted me in an effort to persuade me to veto this bill, both respectfully and otherwise. What I have to say will, I’m sure please almost no one, but I cannot continue to cower behind procedure.

To be frank, I do not believe in gay marriage. That much has been common knowledge for some time and my view has not changed.

However, that does not necessarily mean I must support every bill consistent with that opinion regardless of its feasibility or effects. If enacted, this bill would legally require teachers to enunciate an opinion on a moral issue that many of them do not themselves hold. It sets the precedent of establishing the school system as a primary instructor of morality. Done without the proper moral fabric that cannot legally be taught in our schools, it would likely be seen as an aggressive imposition on the students themselves and convince no one. As many folks have suggested in their correspondence with me, it would likely lead to an increase in bullying and stimulate the effective witch hunt of those students thought to be gay by their peers. Furthermore, even if I signed the bill it would almost certainly never take effect. It would give the federal government leverage to dictate its own version of morality in the classroom. It has become quite clear that enacting this bill would not reshape our culture for the better.

Occasionally in the course of our decision making process, we run across a situation where we must decide between a symbolic stand and prudence. Sometimes a desperate stand must be taken if not doing so would require a man to commit an act of intrinsic evil before God who sees all. But when neither option would be an intrinsic evil, such as in this case, prudence must be used to determine the appropriate course of action.

Therefore, I am vetoing the Promotion of Marriage in Education Act.

For better or for worse, the future of morality in this world lies not in the government but in the choices that each and every one of you make in the course of your daily lives and in your relationships. That is not to deny the government a role whatsoever in morality. Nearly every law we pass has some elements of morality in it and always will. There are tasks the government is suited to doing effectively, such as defending human life from conception until natural death. But there are limits to what the government is capable of doing. If you want to change the world the first person you have to change is yourself. For some of us that alone will take a lifetime.

Good night and God Bless. And although they undoubtedly teach you not to say this in politician school, may God have mercy on us. All of us; myself most certainly included.

Well, there goes my future At-Large Senate run

Thanks man.  This was a good thing.

[Mechaman]

I am vetoing the Mideast Police Canine Reform Act because I believe it would hurt our ability to police drug offenses:

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I will also have to veto the Return to Normalcy Act because I will not put my name on a bill repealing seat belt laws:

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Governor,

YOU WILL FAIL.