Hello? Glen Beck? Hannity? Rush? O'Reilly? Where are you? There is a government official duly elected by the citizens of an American state who is using his power to infringe upon the rights granted all Americans by the Constitution.

Where is your wall-to-wall coverage? Why aren't you inciting your listeners, viewers, fans and Internet followers against this person? Why haven't you aired the home address and phone number of this public official who has so obviously stepped out of bounds and all over the rights of two citizens he was elected to serve?

Hello?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised you have nothing to say. There are no major elections imminent and it's kind of hard to stop mid-tirade on healthcare to flip suddenly to a new topic even though legislating morality was such a big deal to you very recently.

When I heard about Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell, I thought: OK, finally an issue that will allow the most fanatical on the right and left to come together in protest. Bardwell, a Louisiana justice of the peace who is of European ancestry, has refused to marry Terence Mckay and his now wife Beth because they are an interracial couple. Now don't mistake Bardwell's intent. He insists he is not a racist. (Yeah, right.) He claims to have "piles" of black friends who he even allows to come to his home and use his bathroom and whom he treats "just like everyone else. (Why thank ya, suh.) 

So what reason does he give for his long standing stance on refusing to marry interracial couples? He does it for the kids. Because our society gives biracial children such a hard time, it would be unconscionable for him to marry interracial couples knowing biracial children would be the result.

Which begs certain questions? Would he marry an interracial couple if they can provide proof that one or both of them is incapable of having kids?  

Is he as concerned about the suffering of the future offspring of other types of marriages he performs. Does he refuse to marry two overweight people because it is likely their children will be overweight and suffer the myriad of brutal teasing that fat kids endure? Does he only marry people who can produce beautiful children who won't have to worry about being called ugly? Does he make sure the parents won't produce children who need glasses or braces, prime candidates for playground teasing that can scar you for years to come and warp your self-esteem?

It's all just so absurd and indefensible. More than 40 years ago the Supreme Court, you know, the highest court in the country, determined (in the landmark 1967 case Loving v. Virginia) unanimously that "under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State."

So looking at this strictly from that standpoint, it seems to me very clear that Mr. Bardwell is allowing his personal beliefs to interfere with him properly executing the duties he has been entrusted to carry out, and he either needs to get in line with following the laws of this land or get another job. This is America. If he wants to pick and choose whose weddings he officiates, then he's free to do that, just not as an elected justice of the peace representing this government at any level. 

As a daughter of the south I am disheartened by yet another portrayal of my people showing us as backwards, ignorant hicks living in a long gone past. Trust me, we've changed. We wear shoes. We don't all know how to whittle. We don't all drive monster trucks and we don't all have stills in our back yards. Keith Bardwell's beliefs don't represent the people of the South anymore than they represent the laws of the Constitution.

For a country that prides itself on individual freedom, we have a real problem with tolerance when it comes to marriage. We seem to be comfortable with defining it in the narrowest terms possible. You can't legislate love. Love just is. I'm surprised that all of these people who claim to want to bring values back to our country can be so against two consenting adults who want to make a lifelong commitment to their relationship by getting married.

I have a friend who is 5 years old and the child of an interracial couple. They are an awesome family and this is a child who is surrounded by love and acceptance and is not only exposed to all aspects of her varied ethnic heritage but is taught about and exposed to cultures from around the world. I'm sure her parents have taught her that other people's problem with her ethnicity is just that, their problem, not hers. 

It's not the children of interracial couples who suffer. It is our country that suffers from having people who hang on to antiquated racial opinions. People like Bardwell and others who want to hide behind flimsy excuses to deny others their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness need to wake up and remember what this country is really supposed to stand for. Either get with that or get out.

- Contact Daily News contributing columnist Mariel Blake at marielfblake@gmail.com.