Last Updated on: 20th November 2013, 05:12 pm
Ok, I have started this post 3 times and deleted what I had, only to start again. Let’s hope this one sticks.
Here’s the story, according to Edwin Graning, a bus driver at a transit service that picks people up in the more rural parts of wherever this story came from. He picked up two women who said they were going to planned parenthood. At this point, he decided that he was a religious man, and could not, in good concience, drive them somewhere where one of them could have an abortion. He called his supervisor to say he could not drive them there because of his religion, and the supervisor told him then he must be resigning then. He said no, she told him to drive his bus back to the yard, where he was fired. Now, he’s suing based on religious grounds, and has lawyers from the American Center for Law & Justice, head of which is Pat Robertson.
I hope he loses, and resoundingly. If he wins, that sets a dangerous, dangerous precedent. That would mean that any bus driver could trump up any old reason not to transport someone somewhere. What if a bus driver decided not to transport a bus load of people to a bar because he hates drinking? What if a bus driver refused to let someone off at the stop by Dairy Queen because he thought the person was already too fat? What if a paratransit driver refused to drive someone to the disability pension office because he can’t stand people who use the system?
I’m sorry, Mr. Graning, but you’re the bus driver. You don’t get to make moral decisions about where your passengers are going. Your only concern is the proper operation of your vehicle. The reason you got fired was because you refused to do your job. I hope you have to pay hefty legal bills for this stupidity.
