on Feb 20th, 2006Pension Beneficiary, The Indivisble Right of Visibility
The front line usually connotes the battlefield, the piece of ground where the momentum of war is lost or leads to conquest. In the movies, there’s also a heroic soldier who braves his or her life in order to save a buddy or perhaps a whole battalion. One well-tossed grenade just might do the trick instead of sending in a wave of soldiers to overwhelm the enemy.
America, at its constitutional core, perpetuates the principle that “all men are equal” and there is “liberty and justice for all.” Maybe the framers were secretly winking when they said all men are equal, but rather than get into the politics of that, let’s just say it took a battle with lung cancer to put out the political fire that allowed a lieutenant to designate her domestic partner as a pension beneficiary.
So the next time you read about groups fighting for the right to say the pledge of allegiance in schools, maybe it will give new meaning to the word “indivisible.” Note I did not type “invisible.”
The lieutenant, Laurel Hester, 49, had lung cancer, and her battle with the disease lent her cause a profound urgency as the Ocean County freeholders repeatedly refused to consider a resolution allowing county law enforcement employees to designate someone other than a spouse as a pension beneficiary.
The freeholders reversed their position on Jan. 25 after negotiations led to a statewide change in the rules, allowing police and fire department employees to name anyone, not just a spouse, as a beneficiary.
Lieutenant Who Won Pension Rights for Her Domestic Partner
By MICHAEL WILSON
New York Times, February 20, 2006