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Governor Blagojevich is in hot water over what he deems a "bureaucratic" mistake which gave a school $1 million dollars intended for a historic, burned-down church. In the midst of his re-election campaign, Blago pledged to give $1 million to Pilgrim Baptist Church, which was destroyed by a January 2006 fire. At the time, the Loop Lab School was renting space in the church and now, Elmira Mayes, leader of the school, is contradicting Blago's claim of a mistake, saying he personally promised her money for the school.
Mayes said the governor visited the fire site and talked with her as she was sifting through debris from her burned-out school, which had rented space from the church. She did not recall the governor's exact words but "he told me he would help build the school and give $1 million."The school has sent relocated to a new condo across the street from the Sears Towers but has yet to reopen. Spokesmen for the governor insist there was confusion about the church's relationship to the school, but Chandra Gill, a relative of Mayes' who is now running the school, disagrees. "He knew she wasn't the preacher. We are grateful and thankful. We did everything we were supposed to do with the million dollars. It was a great investment."
As for Pilgrim Baptist Church, Blagojevich insists they will still get their money. However, atheist activist Rob Sherman is suing to prevent the church from getting the money, saying the pledge violates the separation of church and state.
"You can't force citizens to support a particular church," Sherman said.A spokeswoman for the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity says the pledge is legal because the church hosts nonreligious community activites: "The grant to Pilgrim Baptist Church is constitutional and proper. It has a clear secular purpose -- the construction of a community center that will house social programs open to the public regardless of religious affiliation or ability to pay.""We all know Rod did this two months before his primary election victory over Edwin Eisendrath. January 2006, when the fire happens, and he's in the March primary against Eisendrath, Rod was pandering for black votes. I understand that. But you can't have the state donating $1 million to a church. You can't do that with tax dollars."
Photo by The New No. 2
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I feel unclean agreeing with Rob Sherman, a lawsuit happy pain in the ass who makes atheism as irritating as religion, but he's right on this one.
When a million dollars gets misplaced in a bureaucratic error, the bureaucracy in question is broken.
Get used to even more from Sherman -- just read in Zorn's column the other day that he recently inherited a fuckton of money from his mother, and he plans on using a lot of it to further his cause.
Would that be an Imperial or metric fuckton?
Good for Sherman. He may be annoying, but the more reasonable among us need to hit back harder against those who would force silly superstitions down our throats. May he annoy and sue until his cash runs out.
May he annoy and sue until his cash runs out.
This is the logic of failure. Calling people names, suing at the drop of a hat and generally being obnoxious isn't going to bring people to reason.
You're adopting the tactics of the zealot to make the argument of the well-reasoned.
I'm of conviction that the separation of church and state benefits both church (and mosque and temple and shrine) and state.
Thomas Jefferson is smarter than you or I Matilda. 216 years ago he put it thus in "Notes on Virginia"
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
A call for the tolerance of others beliefs as well as an articulation of the benefits of a secular state.
Give me Jefferson's wisdom over Rob Sherman's drone any day.
Jefferson also wrote:
"May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government."
Too bad it has not happened. I'm glad Sherman is fighting.
Sherman goes to far many times but atleast someone is fighting the BS that Blago is serving up.
That quote refers to divine right, the notion that rulers are ordained by the almighty, one of the more odious institutions that our founding fathers shuffled off.
This recent strain of thought amongst atheists, that the even the most benign of religious beliefs are akin to fanaticism is simple-minded, intolerant and does a disservice to well-reasoned arguments about theism and atheism.
Fascinatingly, these arguments are often made by the most liberal and "tolerant" of individuals.
what does the fake thomas jefferson have to say?
i'm no fan of organized religion, but i am a fan of architecture. is this money to help out the church, or to rebuild the building?
It's for neither. It's to make Blago look magnanimous. More empty gestures, less actual governing.
And Fake Thomas Jefferson would defer to Bad Horse, the Stallion of Sin.