Sunday, December 09, 2007

Souring on Barrow

Maybe I’ve been living here too long. Defending Andrew Young, twice (contradicting my own first instincts in the process!), and standing by Jim Marshall and John Barrow no matter what they say or do because I believe they’re the best we’re going to elect around here.

That’s fundamentally depressing.

All the more so this weekend, with Amy Morton pointing to reported Barrow quotes in opposition to any form of federal aid for undocumented workers including emergency medical care and public school education for their children.

Says Amy:

[D]oes he not understand that failure to educate children-regardless of how they came to be here-creates a public safety problem for all of us? It is not as if we can pretend that these children are not here, so if they’re not in school, what does Barrow think they’ll be doing with their time? If they grow up unhealthy and illiterate, what impact does he think that will have on the quality of life in our communities?

Given that children who do not complete high school are incarcerated at a higher rate than others, unless Barrow also proposes that we withhold from the children of undocumented workers the privilege of appearing in juvenile court and becoming residents of the nearest jail, all he’s doing is asking taxpayers to spend the most money possible in the least effective manner. That makes zero sense.

Well, I do totally agree. Now what?

CA diocese votes to leave Episcopal Church

NYTimes:

The Diocese of San Joaquin voted on Saturday to cut ties with the Episcopal Church, the first time in the church’s history a diocese has done so over theological issues and the biggest leap so far by dissident Episcopalians hoping to form a rival national church in the United States.

Fissures have moved through the Episcopal Church, the American arm of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members, and through the Communion itself since the church ordained V. Gene Robinson, a gay man in a long-term relationship, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

Traditionalists at home and abroad assert that the Bible describes homosexuality as an abomination, and they consider the Episcopal Church’s ordination of Bishop Robinson as the latest and most galling proof of its rejection of biblical authority.

In the last four years, the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest Christian body, has edged closer to fracture over the issue. In the United States, several dozen individual congregations out of nearly 7,700 have split with the Episcopal Church. But Saturday’s vote was the first time an entire diocese has chosen to secede.

AP (& me) on Andrew Young saying Barack’s too young

AP:

Civil rights icon Andrew Young says Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is too young and lacks the support network to ascend to the White House.

In a media interview posted online, Young also quipped that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has her husband behind her, and that “Bill is every bit as black as Barack.”

“He’s probably gone with more black women than Barack,” Young said of former President Clinton, drawing laughter from a live television audience. Young, 75, was quick to follow his comment on Bill Clinton with the disclaimer, “I’m clowning.”

You must see this full video clip. My earlier take is here.

As I read more I must amend it. I’m not in agreement with most of Don Surber’s post but he does point out the salient fact that Obama’s “a year older than Clinton was when he ran in 1991.” (Though Clinton certainly bungled the beginning, at the very least, of his administration.)

And Kevin Hayden, “Obama would take office at the age of 47. Teddy Roosevelt, JFK, Ulysses Grant and Grover Cleveland were the same age or younger. And Bill Clinton was a whole year younger.” (Then, those were somewhat simpler times.)

I don’t see Young’s words helping Clinton; I still see some essential truths in the whole answer, and I don’t see him as saying “that if you weren’t a 60s agitator, you can’t qualify for squat.”

Andrew Young’s gone off before. Remember WalMart? But I’m inclined to think there’s wisdom there, too, in that old guy.

LATER: The emerging blogosphere consensus is that Young’s an idiot for the comments as quoted by AP. I’m doubtful most have watched the video, not that it would change minds. But one of the things I found most affecting in his comments was his recollections of Matin Luther King. Those memories and experiences certainly impact his words.