Arkansas, a state that still struggles with the lingering images of 1957 Little Rock and other vestiges of racism, can scarcely afford the disdain the state Legislature is attracting now.
House Bill 1228, the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act, threatens to coarsen the image of Arkansas as a place that, in 2015, sanctions discrimination.
The alleged target this time is gays and lesbians and others who, under the new law, might be refused service by businesses based on the owner's exercise of religious freedom.
Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, is sponsoring the bill, which has received strong support in both the House and Senate.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the House gave final legislative approval to the bill. Even before its passage, a renewed level of disdain for the state had begun.
Arkansas is being mentioned in the same breath as Indiana, where the governor of that state last week signed a similar measure into law.
So strong is the opposition to Indiana's law that there have already been significant economic ramifications there and more are expected.
Indiana state officials, including Gov. Mike Pence, have since been scrambling to justify their legislation but with little success.
That should have been warning enough for the Arkansas officials who are involved with the legislation here.
Nevertheless, on Friday, after making several amendments to the House bill, the Arkansas Senate readily adopted it. It passed 24 to 7 with 2 senators not voting.
House members, who approved the original version on Feb. 18, then voted 72-20 for it with seven members not voting. It was back in the House Tuesday for concurrence with Senate amendments. Now, it's on its way to the desk of Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Opponents of the bill, including hundreds of protesters who showed up at the Capitol on Monday, packed a House committee meeting and lined the steps inside. They want the governor to veto it.
Hutchinson has heard, too, from a couple of homegrown corporate giants -- Walmart and Axiom -- that have expressed concern about the law. So have executives from out-of-state companies, like Apple CEO Tim Cook. None of them like the message the proposed law sends about the environment for business in this state.
Hutchinson has nonetheless said he'll sign the measure.
The better choice for lawmakers would have been to send the measure away to an interim study, or just drop it.
The problem here is that passage of any form of this bill, regardless of amendments, will be perceived poorly and be a black mark on the state's reputation.
Unless Hutchinson vetoes (and is not overridden), the perception will remain that this bill is a vehicle for discrimination.
Just look at the experience in Indiana for guidance. No matter how many times the governor tries to make it sound as if Indiana is just mirroring a federal law passed 20 years ago, he can't sell the idea. The Indiana law is perceived as discriminatory and Indiana is paying a price for that perception.
Neither Indiana nor Arkansas protects gays from discrimination. And Arkansas lawmakers made a big deal this session of taking away any local government's ability to provide such protection. That, too, plays into the perception left by this legislation.
Regrettably, House Bill 1228 could have been stopped in a Senate committee.
It turns out that two of the senators who helped vote the measure out of committee, on a 5-3 vote, voted against the bill on the Senate floor.
Sens. David Burnett, D-Osceola, and Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, switched their votes.
Burnett, a former prosecutor and a former circuit judge, said later he changed his mind because he thought the bill was unconstitutional. He also said the governor asked him several weeks back to support it.
Hutchinson, who is an attorney and the governor's nephew, said he made a mistake voting for the bill in committee. While he said he thought the intent of the bill to protect religious freedom is good, it "could allow for discrimination" in limited circumstances.
Had they voted "no" in committee, the bill might have stalled permanently.
Instead, it went right through committee, cleared the full Senate, now has cleared the House and will become law -- unless Gov. Hutchinson intervenes.
Brenda Blagg is a freelance columnist and longtime journalist in Northwest Arkansas. Email her at [email protected].
Commentary on 04/01/2015