Cesar Chavez, Illegal Immigration and Racism
The Dallas City Council conducted a public survey that resulted in the public expressing a preference for renaming Industrial Blvd for Cesar Chavez. Oops. Not what the council had in mind. Can you say Riverfront Blvd instead? Now, the council is backpedaling, delaying a renaming decision and suggesting that the city find another street to name for Cesar Chavez.
There's an old rule in politics. Don't call an election that you don't have to unless you already know the voters are going to side with you. Perhaps the council got itself into this mess by following another old rule in politics: if you don't really want to listen to the voters on one topic, get them talking about something else instead. The whole survey thing was primarily intended to distract voters from the move the council is making to commit Dallas taxpayers to become convention center hotel owners. And that's how Dallas might end up with the Trinity River paved over by something called Cesar Chavez Blvd.
Joseph Kony, a reader who has been filling the The Dallas Morning News blogs with frequent rants against African-Americans (and Africans, too, as skin color is everything in his worldview), tries to enlist Cesar Chavez in his anti-immigrant campaign. He points out that Cesar Chavez once led his United Farm Workers union on a protest march to the Mexican border to object to the growers' practice of encouraging illegal immigration to break union strikes. I suppose I'll let Joseph Kony have Cesar Chavez if Joseph Kony starts supporting unionization drives in Texas.
Barack Obama's Opportunity to Bring Us Together
Michael Landauer, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, lobbies for whoever wins the November election to keep Robert Gates on in the next administration. I think it's an outstanding suggestion. I once suggested John McCain as Barack Obama's Secretary of Defense. Robert Gates might be an even better choice. It would be a wonderful act of bipartisanship in a time of war.
Obama's Meeting with Christian Leaders
Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Religion blog, quotes an AP report that Barack Obama met privately with a wide spectrum of Christian leaders:
"Mark DeMoss, a spokesman for the Rev. Franklin Graham, said Graham attended and asked Obama whether 'he thought Jesus was the way to God, or merely a way.' DeMoss declined to discuss Obama's response."Graham reminds me of Stephen Colbert, who frequently asks his guests: "George W Bush. Great President? Or greatest President?"
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