Where Is The Silent Majority?

A growing minority of ignorant people are convinced that President Obama is a Muslim with a self-serving motive in supporting the right of Muslims to build a cultural center in downtown Manhattan not any closer to the “hallowed” World Trade Center site than strip clubs and at least two existing mosques. A lot of these pea-brains – many of them no doubt Tea Party supplicants – insist that he is not an American and should not be president. Of course, they mean that he is black and should not be president. Some unionized construction workers, who long have had a history of thwarting the attempts of blacks to join their ranks, are soliciting pledges from fellow workers to turn down any offers to work on the Islamic cultural center site.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg has been a strong defender of freedom of religion in this paroxysm of ethnic and religious bigotry and political demagoguery. In a speech on Governor's Island, within the hearing of the Statue of Liberty, he said earlier this month: "It is my hope that the mosque will help to bring our city even closer together, and help repudiate the false and repugnant idea that the attacks of 9/11 were in any way consistent with Islam. Muslims are as much a part of our city and our country as the people of any faith - and they are as welcome to worship in lower Manhattan as any other group."

This has become a national issue among the ill-informed, especially after President Obama stood up for the rights of all, including Muslims, to practice their religion and construct their institutions wherever they want so long as they follow local zoning laws.

Gov. David Paterson is trying to come up with some sort of Solomonic solution, but so far neither the proponents nor the opponents of the center are paying much attention.

Don’t be among the ignorati. Do your own research on this issue and contact your representatives in the City Council, in Albany and in Congress. And contact your own religious leaders to convince them to weigh in. This article from Salon.com might be a good starting point.

Charles Rangel and David Paterson: Lost Leaders

For decades, the names Rangel and Paterson have been at the forefront of politics, especially that involving blackfolks in New York. Depending upon which side of the deal you were on, that was mostly a good thing. Now those names -- Rangel and Paterson -- are at the forefront of politics for all the wrong reasons.

Start with Representative Rangel, who thinks he is still chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee; he thinks he has just stepped aside amid myriad investigations based on ethics and conflicts of interest and tax fraud and who knows what else. The New York Daily News, which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for thrashing Rangel and his allies for their stewardship of the Apollo Theater, published an article on Feb. 27 with the headline “Don’t Want Charles in charge: Rangel should quit chairman post -- Dems”. It’s no surprise that Republicans want him out of that role -- and perhaps even out of office -- but his fellow Democrats are also saying the same thing. In another Daily News article, on Mar. 4, Richard Sisk wrote this: “WASHINGTON - Charlie Rangel was alone and lost Wednesday, an aging and now powerless pol who didn’t know where to go or what to do. He had made a wrong turn coming out of a memorial service for another old bull of the House, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), and was by himself under the vast and majestic expanse of the Capitol dome. The usual scurrying aides, the armload of briefing papers, the multiple cell phones and other trappings of influence were gone.”

A very unscientific but still telling survey by Harlem World magazine found that 67 percent of respondents wanted Rangel to step aside. Just as when it became evident that Rangel’s predecessor, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., was no longer effective, especially for New York, youngbloods are already lining up to run for his seat.

At the state government level, there’s the problem of Gov. David Paterson, who, a few days after announcing his plans to seek election to a full term later this year, announced that he would not be running.

I am not accustomed to David Paterson being a pity-party type of guy. But he came across that way a few days ago in a WCBS-TV interview. “Difficulty and disaster greeted me,” he told the reporter. He wasn’t talking about his whole life’s experience, which, of course, involves health issues that led to his blindness. He was talking about assuming the office of Governor of the State of New York.

He’s the “accidental governor,” one who was picked by Eliot Spitzer to be lieutenant governor but who didn’t have a clue about the real wheelings and dealings in Albany until Spitzer resigned because of a sex scandal involving a prostitution ring. As Lt. Gov., Paterson was a happy-go-lucky fellow who had a title and Harlem’s esteem because of his father, Basil, and his honorary fathers: David Dinkins, Percy Sutton and Charles Rangel.

His intellect and wit have stood him well, but his dumb decisions while in office are leading to a sad downfall. He’s admitted to adultery and drug use; indeed, that was one of his first announcements. Now he’s somehow involved in a domestic violence case brought against one of his aides by that man’s girlfriend. And he seems to have violated state law by accepting free tickets to a Yankees World Series game last year. The piling on of charges and rumors continues.

The end of this year may see Paterson and Rangel retired from current political leadership.