Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Life's surprises
One thing you can always say about life is that it's full of surprises. For example, just a year ago, I don't think it would have occurred to any of us that:
- The fact that Lakewood is doing something as basic as building a police station is becoming political.
- The city, God bless it, found a way to write a traffic ticket to every citizen regardless of whether or not they drive or even whether or not they are alive. My dad died in 2000, and I check the mail every day for his ticket.
- The fact that my daughter is gay would come up at a City Council meeting and would make the paper.
But there you go. It's important not to get distracted. It's important to focus on the big picture. A couple months ago, I picked up Mary Chaney's book and was disappointed at first. I wanted to know what it was like to be in her position and lesbian. She kept the contents of the book to the public and political stuff. But you know, that's OK. That's her right. At the end of the day, she chose to write about campaigns and the public spotlight. And at the end of the day, JoAnna's status or my status or anyone's status does not matter to public policy in Lakewood.
There are bigger questions.
The real issue is if it's OK to make gay people political in Lakewood. The real issue is if it's OK to make people you happen to dislike political. Gays were not the only target Monday. When I commented that it was all about hate, it's because there were two different groups being targeted. There was also an effort to limit funding for groups that serve illegal immigrants, including children. That subject did not get as much attention at the hearing or come up in the story probably because it did not receive as much public testimony (and condoms were not involved). But there was also an effort to make social services groups promise to check whether someone is an illegal immigrant before serving them. That would cripple groups that counsel kids to stay out of gangs, as just one example.
In both cases, we have Lakewood Cares trying to rally its political troops by calling upon hate - or, at the very least, a lack of understanding of someone different. And that's just wrong - just as it would have been wrong to single out Korean-Americans, African-Americans, Jews, Catholics or people of Polish descent (I happen to fit the latter two). If you want to ask whether the city should fund social services programs, you need to ask the question of all programs, not just those that serve people you happen to personally dislike. If the city is going to have a social services program, it needs to serve all citizens.
The frustration is that there's a good question here. When you have limited resources - and are trusted with tax dollars - can the city of Lakewood continue to channel the amount of money that it has to social services programs? That's a good question. But singling out any group is just wrong. Instead of raising the good question, the effort to rally people who personally dislike gays and illegal immigrants appeals to prejudice and misinformation. It's a brilliant tactical way to get the attention of the paper and voters. The folks at Lakewood Cares are geniuses at collecting political power. But they do so at the price of honor.
Pandering to misinformation and hate is always the wrong thing to do.
For those of you who like primary sources, here's Pad Finnigan's original email, and then a letter from a citizen.
Forward this post
- The fact that Lakewood is doing something as basic as building a police station is becoming political.
- The city, God bless it, found a way to write a traffic ticket to every citizen regardless of whether or not they drive or even whether or not they are alive. My dad died in 2000, and I check the mail every day for his ticket.
- The fact that my daughter is gay would come up at a City Council meeting and would make the paper.
But there you go. It's important not to get distracted. It's important to focus on the big picture. A couple months ago, I picked up Mary Chaney's book and was disappointed at first. I wanted to know what it was like to be in her position and lesbian. She kept the contents of the book to the public and political stuff. But you know, that's OK. That's her right. At the end of the day, she chose to write about campaigns and the public spotlight. And at the end of the day, JoAnna's status or my status or anyone's status does not matter to public policy in Lakewood.
There are bigger questions.
The real issue is if it's OK to make gay people political in Lakewood. The real issue is if it's OK to make people you happen to dislike political. Gays were not the only target Monday. When I commented that it was all about hate, it's because there were two different groups being targeted. There was also an effort to limit funding for groups that serve illegal immigrants, including children. That subject did not get as much attention at the hearing or come up in the story probably because it did not receive as much public testimony (and condoms were not involved). But there was also an effort to make social services groups promise to check whether someone is an illegal immigrant before serving them. That would cripple groups that counsel kids to stay out of gangs, as just one example.
In both cases, we have Lakewood Cares trying to rally its political troops by calling upon hate - or, at the very least, a lack of understanding of someone different. And that's just wrong - just as it would have been wrong to single out Korean-Americans, African-Americans, Jews, Catholics or people of Polish descent (I happen to fit the latter two). If you want to ask whether the city should fund social services programs, you need to ask the question of all programs, not just those that serve people you happen to personally dislike. If the city is going to have a social services program, it needs to serve all citizens.
The frustration is that there's a good question here. When you have limited resources - and are trusted with tax dollars - can the city of Lakewood continue to channel the amount of money that it has to social services programs? That's a good question. But singling out any group is just wrong. Instead of raising the good question, the effort to rally people who personally dislike gays and illegal immigrants appeals to prejudice and misinformation. It's a brilliant tactical way to get the attention of the paper and voters. The folks at Lakewood Cares are geniuses at collecting political power. But they do so at the price of honor.
Pandering to misinformation and hate is always the wrong thing to do.
For those of you who like primary sources, here's Pad Finnigan's original email, and then a letter from a citizen.
