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High Ideals, Kind Of

It might interest some readers to know that during this 2009 election year, the Washington State Labor Council has made a resolution not to endorse candidates. Why? President of the Council, Rick Bender, says it's about respect. In a letter on the WSLC website, he wrote:

"We ask that political leaders show us respect by being straightforward and telling us what they think. If support for an issue is conditional on acceptance by the business community or something else, say so. Don't parse words or speak in vague political code, like "supporting the issue," but "having concerns" about the actual bill."

This decision was made after the state legislature, led by Gov. Chris Gregoire and House Speaker Frank Chopp, failed to bring the Workers Privacy Act (WPA) to vote after they told labor leaders they would vote yes. The WPA supports First Amendment privacy rights of individual conscience, including opinions about politics, religion, unionization, and charitable giving. The WPA would make sure that employees who resist any indoctrination of this kind by their employers would not be punished. Even though the WPA was unanimously approved by State Democratic Party, the bill was killed by Gregoire and Chopp. It never even got to vote. State Labor's response? Keeping their mouths shut too. There will be no WSLC endorsements this election.

Is it so wrong to have high ideals? I don't thinks so... Is this what happens to leaders when they've been in power for too long?

Respectfully,

--Monica Schley, Seattle

Geov Parrish comments: I hope WSLC sticks to these principles next year, too, when state legislators are actually up for election.

Sticks and Stones

There's a line between justified criticism and unreasoned vilification. Alexander Cockburn and Rep. Joe Wilson crossed that line last month. Wilson shouted "You lie!" during Obama's speech on health care and Cockburn regrets he cannot shout "You faggot!" any more because the late Senator Ted Kennedy helped pass the Matthew Shepard Act. It's one thing to tear down sacred cows and Cockburn does poke some holes in Ted Kennedy's liberal image. However, to take a contrarian view of everything a leader has accomplished just for the sake of being contrary, leaves the world of journalism and enters the world of extremism.

Millions of people worked very hard and very long to get the Matthew Shepard Act passed. It's about time that hate speech in any form against anybody was outlawed. There are still LGBT people today in the USA--in Seattle--being attacked, beaten, and killed because right wingnuts, radical preachers, and occasionally a writer in a local rag continue to yell "You faggot!"

Cockburn can say what he wants about the dead, but his comment hurt many of us who are very much alive.

--Janice Van Cleve, Seattle

And it was Kennedy who was the prime force behind the Hate Crimes Bill, aka the Matthew Shepard Act, by dint of which America is well on its way to making it illegal to say anything nasty about gays, Jews, blacks, and women. "Hate speech," far short of any direct incitement to violence, is on the edge of being criminalized, with the First Amendment going the way of the dodo.

Cockburn did not, and, so far as you or I are aware, has never yelled "Hey, faggot" at anyone. He certainly didn't use the phrase in ETS!. Only you have done that.

What Cockburn has done, consistently, for years--long before Sen. Kennedy's passing--is criticize hate speech laws and hate crime laws as abnegations of the First Amendment (not to mention putting government in the dubious business of deciding when a statement or act is motivated by bigotry as opposed to, say, general assholeness).

It's fine to disagree with Cockburn's conclusion, but that conclusion is pretty clearly motivated by Cockburn's constitutional absolutism and his well-earned distrust of governments and prosecutors, not by his personal bigotry. Ironically, though, there's already a long-standing body of laws that covers falsely attributing vile statements to people who never made them. It's called libel law.

This Totally Sucks

On September 24, Pierce County Task Force raided a referral service out of Tacoma. The founder, medical marijuana patient Brad Choate, and his fiancé (also a medical marijuana patient) were arrested. At that time his service animal was with us and stolen.

By federal law they are supposed to accommodate the situation. Brad is a disabled American and his dog was very attached. After the arrest they went to the home and the office located in downtown Tacoma.

We are legal marijuana patients. We did not exceed our limit. They came into our office and stole our property. We provided Medical Marijuana ID cards for verified Medical Marijuana Patients and their providers. We are outraged and hope you are, too. We would like to fill the courtroom at Pierce County Courthouse in Tacoma.

For all the concerned citizens, patients, loved ones, and families of medical patients, thank you for your time and support God Bless you. For more information please call ...

Sincerely,

--Brad Choate, via e-mail

[Phone number withheld by editors for security purposes; e-mail editorial@eatthestate.org if you'd like to contact Brad or offer your support.]