Hiatus

Because of other matters that need my attention, NarberthUSA is going to be suspended for a time. I will try to resume regular posting in about a month.

Update

In the face of severe criticism from journalists and bloggers with a lot more influence than I have, a few Republicans such as John Boehner, Mitt Romney, and Sarah Palin today joined political leaders, members of the clergy, and others in condemning the threatened Koran burning that is scheduled to occur on Saturday. Others, including John McCain and Newt Gingrich, have refused, despite serious concerns expressed by Gen. Petraeus and other high level military commanders, to go on the record as opposing the burning.

Not the Time for Silence

About ten days ago I wrote about Terry Jones, a hateful bigot in Florida, who insists on exercising his First Amendment rights by burning Korans on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Today, just four days before the scheduled book-burning, General David Petraeus, the widely respected commander of the war in Afghanistan, warned that images of the burning of a Koran "would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan – and around the world – to inflame public opinion and incite violence." In other words, Americans, both military and civilian, could be put in harm's way. But even that plea from General Petraeus doesn't seem to be enough to deter Terry Jones. What's just as interesting is the long list of Republicans and conservatives who so far, at least, apparently have failed to speak up to condemn Jones and his plan. As of tonight, the list of those who apparently have decided to remain silent on this issue includes former President Bush, former Vice President Cheney, former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Eric Cantor, Lindsey Graham, and many others who never seem to hesitate to express their opinions about other issues as loudly and frequently as they can.


(If anyone has evidence that I named anyone who should not be included my list, please let me know so that I can make an immediate correction.)

Mama Grizzly

I've tried very hard to avoid talking about Sarah Palin. My hope has been that if we just ignore her, maybe she'll go away. There is nothing in her background to suggest that she has the education or experience to be president. Before she was governor, she was the mayor of Wasilla, a town with about 5,500 people at the time of the 2000 census (Narberth had about 4,200 and Lower Merion had close to 60,000 according to that same census). She served less than one full term as governor of Alaska, a state that has about half the number of residents that Philadelphia has. She seems sometimes to have trouble distinguishing truth from fiction (remember the Bridge to Nowhere, Troopergate, the oil pipeline, and the firing of Wasilla's police chief?). If you ever listened to one of her speeches, you quickly realized that she complains a lot, but she never has specific suggestions to fix policies with which she finds fault. But maybe I've been deluding myself because it's becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the reality that Palin is running for president and that she has a base of supporters who seem willing to pretend that she's qualified for the job.

The October issue of Vanity Fair has an in-depth profile of Sarah Palin by Michal Joseph Gross. It is not flattering and, in fact, some might say it's a little scary. It's a long article, but it's well worth reading.

Why We Have the First Amendment

Thanks to the First Amendment, we have the freedom of speech, the right to practice (or not practice) religion, the right to assemble, and the right to petition our government. Those rights apply to us all, even morons and bigots. They even apply to a guy by the name of Terry Jones in Gainesville, Florida. Jones is the head of a church called the Dove World Outreach Center. On September 11th, Jones and his group are holding what they call "International Burn a Koran Day." Nice, huh? Chris Matthews interviewed Jones tonight and asked him if he respected anyone enough that he would cancel the book-burning if that person asked him to. Jones responded that George W. Bush is one of the few leaders he respects, but he would not change his mind even at the request of the former president. I suspect that few people I know would have any respect for someone like Terry Jones, but everyone I know -- Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, believer or atheist -- would stand up for his right to say hateful, intolerant, and incendiary things and, in general, to make a fool of himself.

Time to Get Serious?

Now that summer's almost over, I wonder if we can put some of the distractions of the past few months behind us. Does it really matter where Michelle Obama and her daughter went on vacation? Does anyone besides a handful of wackos really believe President Obama was not born in Hawaii? Is there anyone other than that lunatic representative from Texas, Louie Gohmert, who really thinks that terrorists are sending pregnant women to the United States so their children will be American citizens? Does anyone really care what Sarah Palin thinks? About anything?

We're still engaged in two wars, countries like Iran, North Korea, Yemen, and Somalia are becoming even more threatening to global stability, unemployment is unacceptably high, and the economy is sputtering along. Perhaps it's time to re-focus on issues that really matter. For example, at the same time they're complaining about the deficit, Republicans are pushing to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. (Those are the same tax cuts, in case you've forgotten, that helped make the Clinton surplus vanish in a puff of smoke.) As Paul Krugman points out in his column in the New York Times today, keeping those tax cuts would cost $680 billion over the next ten years. And almost all of it would benefit only the very, very rich, not small businesses and not the middle class where it might do some good. As Krugman put it, "it’s hard to think of a less cost-effective way to help the economy than giving money to people who already have plenty, and aren’t likely to spend a windfall."


Maybe with a little encouragement from us, our elected officials and candidates for office will stop pandering and start looking for real solutions to real problems.

Three Decisions

This is a comment about three recent and completely unrelated decisions by government entities, two of which allow me to continue to be optimistic about our future, and one of which has me scratching my head and wondering what the decision-maker was thinking.

Earlier this week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission in New York City gave final approval for an office building containing an Islamic community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan. Mayor Bloomberg reminded us yesterday, in a speech that should make us all proud, that our nation was founded on the principle that government may not favor one religion over another or prohibit the free exercise of religion. In may happen in other countries, but we should never allow our government to attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship, based on their own particular religion, on their own private property. If they would allow themselves to be open-minded by listening to people like Mayor Bloomberg, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and others could learn a lot about the Constitution and especially the First Amendment that they claim to hold dear.

And in a decision just announced this afternoon, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California invalidated California's Proposition 8, a referendum passed by voters that banned same-sex marriages. It was an ugly, intolerant, hateful law, and Judge Vaughn Walker (who, incidentally, was nominated by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush) should be applauded for his insight, wisdom, and fairness. Of course the battle is not over; an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals is a certainty, and the case is likely to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. But bigotry and intolerance have suffered a blow, at least for today.

But then there was the decision made last night by the Chair of the Lower Merion Township Zoning Hearing Board. A news crew from Channel 6 attempted to record a public meeting that was addressing the plans by St. Joseph's University to make improvements to its athletic fields along Latches Lane, but the Chair, with the aid of the police, directed that the camera be removed. Unless the camera was somehow causing a disturbance, and I am not aware of any evidence of that, I believe the Chair's decision is legally suspect. Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act specifically states that recording devices may be used by people attending meetings of public agencies to record all the proceedings. It is important to note that the agency is permitted to establish rules and regulations regarding the conduct of the meeting including, presumably, the use of television cameras, but I seriously doubt that the cameras can be banned outright. It will be interesting to see if Channel 6 challenges the actions of the Zoning Hearing Board and its Chair.

As I stated at the beginning, these three decisions have absolutely nothing to do with each other, unless they can be said to serve as simple examples of how our government and our elected and appointed officials should never be afraid to do the right thing, in the open, in full public view, even if the result may not be universally popular.