OBAMA SEEKS TO DIFFUSE RACIAL TENSION AFTER “STUPIDLY” REMARK

THERE ARE MANY MORE COPS THAN
THERE ARE AFRICAN AMERICAN SCHOLARS
















(July 24, New York, NY) President Obama made a surprise visit to the White House Briefing Room earlier today in an attempt to clarify a statement he made during a Press Conference Wednesday night regarding the arrest of his friend, Henry Louis Gates. Since the arrest of the Harvard Professor of African American Studies by a White Cambridge (Mass) Police Officer, Sergeant James Crowley, the incident has received widespread coverage and has ignited a long standing debate related to relationships between members of Law Enforcement and the Black and Latino communities.

Gates was arrested in his home by Sergeant Crowley, who is White, on July 16th after a White female neighbor phoned in a report of a possible break in at Gates’ home. Soon after his release after four hours in custody Professor Gates was fully engaged in an effort to exploit his unfortunate arrest as having been racially motivated. When questioned about the situation by a Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times Wednesday, the President admitted that he did “not have all the facts” but added he thought the Cambridge Police acted “stupidly” during the encounter. His statement set off a firestorm of outrage from the Law Enforcement community nation wide.

Professor Gates had escalated the tension earlier this week by “demanding” an “apology from” Sergeant Crowley. Crowley strongly stated that there would be “no apology” coming from him. Professor Gates had received an official apology from the Mayor of Cambridge after all charges were dropped on Tuesday, July 21. By early this morning Police and other Law Enforcement groups were calling on President Obama to “apologize” to the Law Enforcement community as a whole and Sergeant Crowley specifically.

President Obama told the media that he had spoken with Sergeant Crowley prior to his appearance at the podium in the Briefing Room and that he had invited both Crowley and Gates to come to the White House to discuss the matter and maybe have a “beer”.

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT RACE, IT’S ABOUT OUR CULTURE


This episode where a Black man feels he was wronged by a White Police Officer is not an uncommon experience for many men in the African American and Latino communities. Charges of “racial profiling” and other prejudicial, heavy handed tactics have come from the minority communities against individual Officers and Police Departments across the country. There have been several precedent setting rulings regarding specific cases such as the suit against the New Jersey State Troopers accused of stopping Black men driving on the NJ Turnpike “disproportionally” and often “without probable cause.”

A vigorous debate within Police Departments, the Justice Department and academia has been on going for at least a decade. The issue flares back into the headlines every time a prominent or well known Black man becomes involved erroneously with a White Officer. Historically there have been problems with the interactions, relationships and perceptions among members of the Black and Latino communities and cops; there is no denying the problem exists. However, over the last ten years most big city PDs have invested heavily in sensitivity training for their members as well as community outreach efforts, recruitment drives and other initiative aimed towards improving perceptions on both sides of the divide.

What has made this particular incident even more incendiary is that Professor Gates is considered to be the “most prominent African American Scholar” in the country. He has many high placed friends and associates as well as a large “bully pulpit” in his position at Harvard. He is referred to by his friends as “Skip” and the President referred to him by that name on Wednesday night. Other “prominent” African American “scholars”, “intellectuals” and “thinkers” have been pouring out of their richly paneled offices in universities across the country in support of Professor Gates. Many have contributed opinion and editorial pieces to various media outlets as well as appearing on various network and cable news programs to discuss the issue. Honest debate is a healthy method by which to address such thorny issues. It was only after a week of escalating tensions fueled by many Blacks in academia that Police organizations began to speak out. After the President’s “stupidly” remarks, the Law Enforcement began to protest and defend Sergeant Crowley.

The cops did not initiate this conflict. Professor Gates, after displaying appalling disrespect for Officer Crowley, chose to make an issue out of the event. His band wagon filled rapidly with all sorts of supporters. The problem with all the hype surrounding this incident is that it has been cast purely as a matter of race. What it really is, aside from the racial aspect, is a sad statement on the perception of members of Law Enforcement and their lack of respect throughout our culture and society. Apparently, by this afternoon, our President realized the mistake he’d made and that there are far more members of the Law Enforcement community than there are African American intellectuals and that they contribute more to our society and culture in a day than all the Black Studies “scholars” in the country do in a life time.

Our society is constructed on the concept and actuality of laws and order. Without such fundamental principles in place we would have anarchy. Yes, there are flaws in the “system” and flawed individuals as members of the “system” but, for the most part, by and large, law and order is maintained; the criminal justice mechanisms run true. To think otherwise is to deny facts.

What a society and a culture respects and elevates says a great deal about its people. Our society has drifted far afield from the days when there was respect for authority and fame was a status attained by few. Sure, we have had reason to loose faith in our institutions. Everything from the race riots of the 1960’s through the lies of Viet Nam and Watergate, have conditioned us to be cynical and apathetic. Police corruption and abuses in the 1970’s actually ushered in a new era of policing and police oversight. We have come a long way from where we were but have a long way yet to travel. Every unanticipated bump in that road, when every Henry Louis Gates who wants to stir the always simmering pot of racial animus does so, we become distracted and detoured.

We celebrate musicians, athletes and other characters of dubious merit while we take for granted our teachers, cops and other civil servants; the hundreds of thousands who labor almost anonymously to ensure our safety and the cohesiveness of our society. Without those who labor in the unglamorous trenches embedded within our society, we would not be in a position to have any kind of culture. The infrastructure of our society, the men and women who operate it all, are who and what allow the rest of us, prominent or ordinary, rich or middle class, talented, famous or infamous, to be what we are.

The contribution to society made by African American scholars is probably important to members of certain circles. For all their collective “expertise” and high powered intellect, it seems they do little to actually contribute to, elevate or assist the African American community writ large. They write their books and give their lectures, they hold conferences, debates and seminars. They claim to be experts on the “plight” of the Black community and possess expertise on everything from the true meaning of rap music and graffiti to all the many socioeconomic, historic, societal and cultural reasons that a large portion of Black America remains mired in poverty, broken families, drug addiction and cycles of abuse, crime and criminality.

Your average New York City Police Officer, after just a few years on the job, has a better practical understanding of the dynamics of neighborhoods and broader applicable education in sociology, psychology and human behavior than any Black “scholar” will ever possess. They live and work from ivory towers so far removed from “their people” that they haven’t a clue. Interestingly, Sergeant Crowley had just recently completed a stint as an instructor for sensitivity training for Officers in that jurisdiction. He had been appointed to that position by a Black Governor. Sergeant Crowley probably understands more about interracial relations and many other aspects of the social sciences than the esteemed Professor Gates. Gates would most likely quickly run back to his cloistered academic world the first time he rode with Sergeant Crowley and had to confront what cops confront every day of their working lives.

Contributions to society and culture can, in part, be measured by how many lives are affected by a given institution, agency and individuals. There is no doubt that Police Officers have a greater, more positive impact on and in peoples lives by a staggering order of magnitude than all the Black Professors in the country’s universities and colleges combined - and then some.

As long as African American “scholars” insist on framing every issue, each debate, every discussion about virtually everything and anything in terms of race, we will never get close to walking the road that remains unexplored turf at this point in time. We elected our first African American President last November and, President Obama attained his victory by the votes of a broad, diverse, multiracial, multi-ethnic coalition of citizens who saw beyond color, prejudice, bias and history. Perhaps Professor Gates, the eminent scholar could learn a lesson or two from the President. Obviously, he and most of his ilk remain stuck somewhere back in the past, cemented in places that don’t exist anymore, carrying enormous chips on their shoulders they could have shed years ago. But, maybe, if they were to do so they would somehow loose their relevance. We have an African American President and have had other very highly placed officials on all levels of government of African American identity for many years.

Perhaps Professor Gates should be more interested in helping to cultivate the next generation of African American doctors, lawyers, engineers, judges, military leaders, statesman, police officers and other professionals than in crying loud and long from Harvard Yard about how wronged he was and what all that “really “ means.

Gates can play this event up for all its worth for as long as he wants. That is a luxury of being an academic. Officer Crowley and all the other Police Officers across the land have no such luxury; each tour of duty, every shift brings its own and any number of incidents and events of varying severity and seriousness. That is real life. That is what cops do. Our society should be a little more respectful to authority, give a bit more thought towards the perspective from the other side of the street and not look down on those who are the very glue that holds this whole thing - our culture and society together.




Links:


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/07/24/2009-07-24_obama_calls_white_policeman_who_arrested_scholar_.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/us/politics/25gates.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/24/AR2009072400451.html?hpid=topnews

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25403.html

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/72458.html



Copyright TBC 2009 © All Rights Reserved

HARVARD PROFESSOR FLUNKS BIG TEST

ARRESTED SCHOLAR TAKES LOW ROAD














Professor Henry Louis Gates being arrested at his Cambridge
home last Thursday. Maybe Gates should grow up and shut up.


(July 22, Boston, Mass.) Considered “one of the most prominent African-American scholars” in the country, one might have thought that Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. would have acted professionally when confronted by a Police Officer and taken the high road after his arrest last week. He did neither. Instead of using his humiliating experience to promote an honest, forthright, candid debate about race relations with some in the law enforcement community, he has chosen to play the race card to the hilt. Despite his academic credentials and the respect among his peers, he appears to be overplaying an unfortunate event, exploiting it , and setting a very poor example for other, less prominent members of the male African-American community. The Professor has failed terribly and, his behavior leading up to and subsequent to his arrest has been shameful.

According to public records and media accounts of the incident, Professor Gates was arrested in the foyer of his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Thursday, July 16 at 12:22 PM. A White female neighbor had called the police to report a possible burglary at a home that turned out to be owned by Gates. Allegedly, Gates was locked out of his home upon returning from a trip to China and was ‘jimmying” the lock to gain entrance. The Police Officer who responded, Sergeant James Crowley, to the possible burglary in progress confronted Gates and was met with a remarkably deplorable reaction from the Professor. He failed repeatedly to produce identification for the Officer. Instead, he demanded the Officer’s “name and badge number” and informed him that he “didn’t know who he was messing with.” In response to the abusive, belligerent, uncooperative actions perpetrated by this world famous “scholar”, the Officer had had enough and placed Gates under arrest. All charges were officially dropped on Tuesday, July 21.

One can understand why Professor Gates was upset, even angry about being confronted in his own home by a Police Officer. He could have easily taken the high road, answered the Officer’s questions and that would have been the end of the story. He could then have chosen to make it a big issue or not, he could have publicized his experience to make a point or handled himself in a manner more becoming of his education and socioeconomic status instead of acting like a brazen street thug.

Most Police Officers in large diverse jurisdictions such as the Boston suburb of Cambridge, make an effort to treat everyone respectfully; everyone gets one shot. A question is asked, answer it. The cop requests ID, provide it. The first few seconds, that initial moment of contact between cop and citizen /suspect / unknown entity is vitally important and, most Police Officers will admit that the initial attitude displayed by the confronted or approached citizen will set the tone and tenor of the entire encounter in most cases. Sure, Professor Gates was angry but, he apparently did not even take a moment to hear what the Officer was saying, disallowing the Officer from explaining the circumstances by which he had come to be at Professor Gates’ home.

Once it was established, after Gates provided identification that proved the home was in fact his legal residence, the Officer still had questions; any cop would, regardless of the man’s color, race, ethnicity or social status. A cop would most likely be thinking: is Gates married? Was there, perhaps, an order of protection against him from his wife? Was there some sort of domestic disturbance that resulted in Gates’ being locked out of his own home and having to break in, as it were? Police Officers encounter the worst of the worst of people and see the worst in the best of people. Cops quickly learn to take nothing for granted, to be suspicious until all suspicions are allayed. Cops learn, sadly, that anyone is capable of virtually anything at any time or under given circumstances. How was this Officer to know that this man was a Harvard Professor? It appears that this fact alone inflamed Gates right off the bat. “Don’t you know who I am”? Every cop hears that line more in a week than most people will hear it in a lifetime.

Things escalate extremely rapidly when a cop is met with an uncooperative, mouthy person. Despite what at times is extremely harsh verbal abuse that can turn physical in the blink of an eye, most Officers exercise great restraint. In a City like Cambridge, the Police Officers are from the predominately racially mixed neighborhoods in and around Boston. This is not some backwater like Iowa City where the only experience most White cops have with Black people is watching them play sports. Cops who grew up in racially mixed communities are more attuned to and sensitive in, their interactions with Black and Latino citizens. This is a fact. Certainly , there are those who will beg to differ with these statements, some who will outright dismiss and ridicule them but, they are facts born out by statistics and numerous academic studies.

What the central issue here appears to be , and , if it was not, Professor Gates’ is making certain that it will be, is race. A Black man and a White Officer. Racial profiling. Stereotyping. Prejudice. Bias. Overt racism. Yes, these are all realities at times in incidents minor and major across the country. Many Black and Latino men have been victims of improper stops and searches because of individual Officers biases, prejudices and even racism. This is a fundamental issue in policing in cities across the country, one that needs to be addressed constantly and in the most positive manner possible. Gates could have turned this event in his favor but, he chose not to. That is a fact.

Although the Cambridge Police Department and Professor Gates have not been shy about releasing the facts, as they perceived and experienced them at the time of the event, no one, aside from those few present, knows precisely what transpired. There are just too many variables. What was Gates’ mood and why did he react as he did? Was the first Officer on the scene confrontational, aggressive, hostile, threatening? Only those men can answer those questions. The questions that remain and now exist out here in the public domain have no purpose other than to exacerbate the tensions that exist in places where predominately White Officers police predominately Black neighborhoods or in places where there is a growing presence of a Black “Middle Class” in historically White communities. There can be no denying that we have societal ‘growing pains’ when it comes to interracial relations and interactions.


Unfortunately, tonight during a White House Press Conference conducted by President Obama to address some of the concerns related to his health care reform efforts, the last question he was asked was about Professor Gates. President Obama said the Cambridge Police acted “stupidly” when they arrested Gates in his own home. He went on to bring up the experiences common among Black and Latino men who have had bad interactions with members of law enforcement. Perhaps by labeling the Cambridge Police Department’s reaction to Gates as being one “stupidly” handled, the President exercised a poor choice of words. It will most definitely fuel the debate rather than defuse it which the President could have done.

While Gates spent only four hours in custody, was released and received an apology from the Mayor of Cambridge, he is demanding an apology from the arresting Officer. The Officer, a veteran, Sergeant James Crowley, has emphatically said there will be “no apology” coming from him. So, this stalemate additionally assures that this debate will continue, grow murkier and more occluded since the famous Professor has decided to play it out in the gutter of racial victimization. He is also threatening a law suit and is being represented by a Harvard colleague, Professor of Law, Charles Ogletree. Nice work, Professor. You are going to play this up for all it’s worth, right? When will Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton show up to help defend your civil right that were so horribly violated by a Police Officer doing his job?

Another question for the good Professor: you must not interact very often or well with your White neighbors if a neighbor did not even recognize that it was you breaking in to your own home. Why is that ?

It is a sad statement that in our country today, with our first African American President elected by a resounding majority, that race remains troublesome in many aspects of our lives. It is sadder still that an obviously intelligent, successful African American Ivy League Professor chose to exploit his bad experience, stir up more racial tensions, play the role of the victim so blatantly instead of rising above the immediate emotions of the moment and using his position in academia to teach a lesson. That is what Professors do, isn’t it? They teach, they educate, they help form young minds into mature ones. They instruct in reason, logic and open-minded debate. What lessons are you teaching by your actions Professor Gates? What do you want people to learn from your encounter with Sergeant Crowley?

By the looks of it you seem to want to reach back in time, to promote more racial discord, more adversarial relations between Blacks , Latinos and Police Officers. That is sad, Professor. You should be thankful that you didn’t get your teeth knocked out for being so belligerent to an Officer of the Law. Sergeant Crowley obviously displayed more restraint than you deserved.



Links:


http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/21/massachusetts.harvard.professor.arrested/

http://www.theroot.com/views/lawyers-statement-arrest-henry-louis-gates-jr

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/20/henry-louis-gates-jr-arre_n_241407.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jNR4dcq5sivgbez2rttRVWtTMXoAD99JTKN81

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25310.html



Copyright TBC 2009 © All Rights Reserved

JULY 20, 1969

A MAN REMEMBERS A BOY’S THOUGHTS














This iconic image of our home planet provided an entirely new perspective
on our place in the universe and our role as custodians of Earth.




(July 20, New York, NY) It was a moment in time he’d never forget. The fact that today marks the 40th anniversary of that event renders him a little disoriented. But, such is life. Memories remain fixed points that we drift further and further away from. Some loose their luster, others become murky or smudged over the years from pawing at them, handling them. Some never seem to change or become altered in any appreciable way. What transpired on July 20, 1969, for him, is one such memory. The thought of men on the Moon has never ceased to amaze and thrill him.

He grew up with the Space program, the famed “Space Race” between the United States and the USSR. Even as a kid he was aware that their was a military aspect to the entire endeavor. All the original Astronauts were military pilots. He thought that was neat. Actually, he thought everything about it was neat. What was not to like for a young boy? There were rockets and huge tractors, tremendous assembly buildings, lift offs, splashdowns, aircraft carriers, navy choppers and divers and the achievements themselves. And, of course, their were the men; men whose names he’d memorized and has never forgotten.

Growing up here in this Big Apple, he’d ride the subways after school to visit various construction sites. He was fascinated by construction, the cranes and bulldozers; the men who walked the high steel. He watched them excavate a huge hole in lower Manhattan that would become the “bathtub” that housed the foundations of the Twin Towers. The World Trade Center construction progressed as he aged and he bore witness to it every day for almost ten years. He would later in life come to live within their shadows.

The whole notion of men going into space, orbiting the Earth in tiny capsules no larger than a 1966 VW bug was mind boggling to him. He could only try to imagine the level of bravery, the shear courage it took for these men to venture into the truly unknown. These men were testing theories with their lives at stake. Images of those many missions, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions imparted in him a sense of respect for the military, for the skills of men who flew these machine, the minds that thought them up and the engineers, technicians and mechanics who made them reality. Whatever was needed was built; it was that simple. It was the vastness of those minds, the novelty of their thinking and, in a way, the manner in which they made it seem so matter of fact - this is what we need to do, this is what we need to do it, so, let’s get on with it. NASA and all her subcontractors were powerful examples of that ill-defined “spirit” that men of his age today grew up with.

He was a child of that time, a product of that age. The 1960’s, as he was coming of age, were filled with historic moments, tumultuous events that even his Dad could not totally explain. There was a war in a place called Viet Nam; Chet Huntley and David Brinkley reported casualty counts on the nightly news. There were students downtown burning their bras and draft cards. There were race riots and he stood with his dad and others on the rooftop of their South Bronx five story walkup and watched the flames in Brooklyn, Harlem and over in Jersey City and Newark. JFK, the first Irish Catholic President was assassinated and, not many years later his brother Bobby and, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King. Everything seemed bad, confusing. That may have been the appeal of the Space Program; it was so exciting, it was so ambitious and positive. These feats could make up for much that was not right and show a fresh glimpse of his Dad’s America.

There was nothing ‘off the shelf’, as it were: from the medical evaluations of the seven original Gemini Astronauts through every piece of hardware used throughout the history of the programs that culminated 40 years ago today. Literally every component had to be designed from scratch often based on ill defined specifications and with scant knowledge of the real or imagined hazards. Engineers and scientists performed monumental calculations with only slide rulers and primitive punch card computing technology; far less computing power than there is in a common microwave oven of today.

But, Americans had traveled this path, albeit in a far different pursuit, before. The Manhattan Project that delivered the first atomic weapons bore many similarities to the Space Program but its mission was a finite proposition. Once the devices were proven to be what they had only had been imagined to be, they were utilized to end a terrible war. The technology from that endeavor ushered in the “Nuclear Age” where nuclear power was harnessed for peaceful, power generating purposes. He was born as a member of the Baby Boom and, it would be many years later that the significance of his birth time would be fully realized and appreciated.

The Space Program dwarfed the Manhattan Project in virtually every comparable aspect. Actually, it was only after Tom Wolfe’s best-selling book The Right Stuff and the movie of the same name that the public learned some of the details of the earliest days, the very birth and infancy of the manned space flight program. Countless other books, documentaries and several movies have captured the drama of it all, the stupendous magnitude of what was unknown, unknowable and what had to be overcome to achieve the goals set forth.

Once the young President JFK proclaimed that “we will go to the moon in this decade, not because it is easy, but because it is hard” the game was on.

It rained in New York City off and on for most of July 19, 1969. That did not deter crowds from gathering in public places like Central Park, Times Square and other locales. He watched on a 17 inch black and white TV the landing of the “Eagle” shortly after 4:15 that afternoon and remained uncharacteristically glued to that TV set until well after midnight. Mom and Dad were as caught up in the moment as everyone else. It seemed miraculous. The Pope was on TV earlier that day offering prayers for the Astronauts. The entire world was watching.

The old timers in the neighborhood said the rain was caused by the launch itself. Some said that every time a rocket was launched it did something to the atmosphere that caused rain. It sort of made sense to him but it seemed trivial. These were, after all, the same old stoop sitters who said heat lightning was caused by the bombs we were dropping on North Viet Nam.

It was not until the next night that he saw the Moon again. Looking at it on July 21, 1969 knowing that two men had just been there, they had walked there, slept there, spoken to us all from there, gave the Moon a different character. We had been there. That meant something to him then as it does today.

Since that day he has read and studied the Space program and NASA extensively. he satisfied his curiosities by reading only to find tangential curiosities that spurred the need for further understanding. The more he has learned about the manned space flight program from 1959 through 1972, the greater is his respect and awe for all of it, everyone involved in it and the fact that they succeeded in the face of incredible odds. He thought everything after Apollo was bullshit; he never watched a shuttle lift off, never cared about any of the post lunar years of NASA. Low Earth orbit antics were a parody of the NASA he grew up with.

He appreciates all the technological developments from the Apollo years that became integral parts of our everyday lives; things from Teflon, Velcro, to advanced communications and the entire array of engineering and basic sciences advancements that were built upon, expanded and broadened to produce the level of technological sophistication we live with today.

The world at times seems too complicated to him; it has the feeling of moving too fast without getting anywhere. Tremendous knowledge and information is available literally at our finger tips yet, we as a culture, a society, as a people do not seem better for it. People are certainly not like they were in 1969. That makes him sad. But, many things make him sad today. That is probably just the tendrils of a mid life crisis or simply the product of having lived this long.

He saw Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins on TV today. They still have his utmost respect and admiration. He still believes the most enigmatic of anyone associated with Apollo, Neil Armstrong, to be the person he’d most like to sit and have a private visit with. What must there thoughts be on this night?

He can only wonder; wonder and remember.

He still looks at the Moon with reverence and fascination; the same emotions that have drawn men to it since the dawn of time. It is our nearest celestial neighbor and we have been there. Somehow, that still makes a difference to him and, it always will.




Links:


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090720-apollo-11-moon-facts.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,533820,00.html

http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blog/2009/07/apollo_11_lunar_landing_captiv.html

http://www.embedded.com/products/integratedcircuits/218501397



Copyright TBC 2009 © All Rights Reserved

THE C STREET SHUFFLE

OUTWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS
MARCHING TO THEIR OWN TUNE

















HOUSE OF THE HOLY HYPOCRITES
What goes on behind these closed doors?



(July 19, Washington, DC) It is a nice piece of property in a neighborhood wealthy people covet. Walking by it nothing about it is remarkable; just another nice, well kept townhouse in the shadow of the Capitol. The passer by would probably not give a thought to who owns it, who lives there or what transpires within. That was, up until now.

Over the past two weeks this house on C Street has come under scrutiny about not only who resides within, what goes on therein, but who or what entity owns it and for what purpose. No longer is this just another house on a pleasant block in DC. It is now the epicenter of sexual scandals reaching the highest levels of Congress and, as the scrutiny increases, it is any ones guess what else will be discovered about this Christian outpost for high powered Republican politicians.

Maybe there’s something in the water.

The house is owned and operated by a very secretive Christian group that is referred to by several names such as “The Family” and “The Fellowship” and has been described as everything from a “bible Study group” to a humanitarian organization sponsoring world wide hunger relief programs. All of this really doesn’t matter all that much until the nexus between this “family”, their house on C Street and members of Congress is called into question. Also, having some of the most high profiled adulterers in government either living in this house or seeking council from those who operate it, naturally generates suspicions of all sorts.

It has been reported by current and former residents of the C Street house that they swear an oath of secrecy, loyalty and, apparently to aide and abet any of their holy brethren who can’t seem to control the opening and closing of their zippers with women other than their wives. One former resident said that the oath they swear puts loyalty to “The Family” ahead of that to their wives. With the heavy cloak of secrecy, the hint of nefarious connections to some under belly of the far right Conservative Christian movement (for lack of a more accurate term), there now emanates an odor of more than simple marital impropriety - this entire set up stinks and calls into question not just the professional integrity of those affiliated with this joint, but also their collective morals, ethics, and fealty. To whom are they most loyal and to whose drum beat do they march or, for that matter, caste their Congressional votes?

Suddenly, thanks to the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, these are all valid questions. In a week that saw the GOP members of the Judiciary Committee grill the Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, over everything from her ethnicity to her “judicial philosophy” often in barely concealed language of racism, sexism and white conservative southernism, the gloves are off regarding investigating all the boys on C Street, past and present and all those who are affiliated with them and their Christian crusade-ism.

It is difficult not to snicker when the likes of John Ensign, Mark Sanford and Chip Pickering, all C Streeters, are caught with their pants down. These three maggots were among the most vocal critics of then President Bill Clinton who had his own highly publicized problems controlling his zipper. It is true that the C Street house is not made of glass literally however, as everyone is learning daily, it just as well might be.

Zealots by nature are incapable of seeing themselves as they really are. Self righteousness leaves no room for objectivity. For far too long the extreme zealots of the far right wing Republican Party have monopolized everything from patriotism to fidelity, the right to life to squashing the rights of others. Principals are devoid from their yammering; ideology is the driving force, a strict ideology that allows for no objective discussions or debates, ideology as primacy.

What would the Republicans be saying if several catholic members of Congress lived in a house run a priest? How about if members of the Congressional Black caucus shared a home and had a minister residing with them? Would that not raise an eyebrow or two? Somehow, for some inexplicable reasons the Republican guard has caste themselves as being above reproach. They wear their “Christianity” as a suit of armor and their “God” is the ONLY God.

Now, the chickens are coming home to roost; the shephard must reel in his stray flock members and any criticism aimed their way is an outrage? These are some extremely strange folks with some glaring hypocrisy and contradictions being played out in the harshest glare of the 24 hour news cycle.

As it should be.

Right or wrong, high crime or misdemeanor, when Bill Clinton was served with impeachment by the Republican controled House, the notion of impeachment was forever diminished if not destoyed. Just think, had the GOP not shot their load going after President Clinton, would true criminals like George W. Bush and his boss Dick Cheney, men who blatantly violoated the Constitution during their execution of a war of their own construct, have had impeachment charges leveled against them? Here are another two messianic zealots who conducted policy as instructed directly from God. That God sure has been busy with these Republicans hasn’t he?

Zealots planted at each end of the political / ideological spectrum are equally shameful and guilty of some of the same sins, crimes and wrongheadedness. The reason there is such joy in the irony with this mind numbing fall from grace on the Right is that they overplayed their hands at every turn, were obnoxiously, arrogantly, stubbornly right - as in correct. They could do no wrong and that, fellow citizens, was that.

Well, that was then. This is now.





Links:


http://www.worldmag.com/webextra/15584

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/25/AR2009062504480.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/ensigns-c-street-house-ow_b_230015.html

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090719_16_A1_Scanda107637

http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2009/7/19/14453/2498/Diary/C-Street-Cult-House-at-Center-of-John-Ensign-and-Mark-Sanford-Affairs

http://www.examiner.com/x-4383-Portland-Progressive-Examiner~y2009m7d19-Christian-mafia-the-Family-at-C-Street

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/07/17/another-c-street-pol-accused-of-cheating.aspx



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