Both of Us .org

I live in the 5th district of Minnesota, and recently we elected Keith Ellison to serve as our congressman to the House of Representatives. I have listened and learned about the views and opinions of Mr. Ellison and have found him to be quite admirable and worthy of representing us in Washington. Unfortunately there are some who have quite a different view of Keith Ellison.

During election season the Republican candidate, Alan Fine, ran a significant amount of negative campaigning against Ellison. Often when Fine choose to speak about Keith Ellison, the name Louis Farrakhan came up. Fine's goal was to try to associate the anti-semitic accusations leveled against Farrakhan with Ellison. In the early 1990's Ellison did volunteer work for the Million Man March and had written about Farrakhan in a positive light in a college newspaper. Fine's guilt by association scheme was unsuccessful, and Ellison was elected.

Another Republican operative, David Strom of the Taxpayer's League of Minnesota, in October wrote an OpEd piece entitled "Gang members soon to get their own congressman". Mr. Strom argued that Keith Ellison would champion the cause of gang members and cop killers. Ellison was a defense attorney and also had participated in rallies demonstrating against excessive use of force by the police, this was the basis of Strom's weak argument.

A week after the elections, congressman-elect Keith Ellison appeared on CNN with host Glenn Beck. Mr. Beck offered this statement to Mr. Ellison: "I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " Beck added: "I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way." Later that week, John Steward of the Daily Show summed up the insanity of Mr. Beck's statement: "Finally, a guy who says what people who aren't thinking are thinking."

This week conservative columnist Dennis Prager pushes the bar even further with his piece entitled "America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on". As a devout and practicing Muslim, Mr. Ellison has opted to be sworn in as congressman using the Koran rather than the Bible. In Mr. Prager's opinion, "the act undermines American civilization". Mr. Prager further says "insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible."

I find it amazing that Mr. Prager is so in tuned with America to know that collectively we are only interested in one book, that being the Bible. It is also amazing that Mr. Prager finds Mr. Ellison's request so offensive and further attributes it to "an act of hubris that perfectly exemplifies multiculturalist activism."

Truly the curtains are fully laid open as one conservative after another boldly writes to tell us exactly how much contempt they hold for some of the pillars of the American Experiment, including our freedom of religion, our 'melting pot' of ethnicity, and our tolerance of believes and lifestyles. Clearly these people (keep in mind they are mostly white men of influence) are unsettled by the reality that surrounds them. The reality is that America is not what it used to be in 1776, nor what it was in 1865, nor what it was in 1950.

The average person on the street would likely say they are pleased that this is not 1776, 1865 or 1950. Your average person would likely include a woman who could not vote before 1919. Your average person may include a person of non-European decent who may have been treated as less than fully human years ago. Your average person may not be a practicing Christian, may not be a heterosexual, and may not be married with 2.5 children living with a 6 figure income in the suburbs. The reality is that America is no longer a society exclusively dominated by white males practicing white nationalism. The reality is that typical conservatives needs to get over themselves and deal with the world outside of their insular bubble. I can only hope the insanity of what they speak and write helps to further ostracize them from the real America. I know that America can and will continue to flourish with or without them.


UPDATE: Think Progress tells us: The Office of the House Clerk confirmed to ThinkProgress that the swearing-in ceremony consists only of the Members raising their right hands and swearing to uphold the Constitution. The Clerk spokesperson said neither the Christian Bible, nor any other religious text, had ever been used in an official capacity during the ceremony. (Occasionally, Members pose for symbolic photo-ops with their hand on a Bible.)

The comfort level of our new home has recently increased. We finally shelled out some cash to buy furniture. Our living room now has a comfortable sofa, chair and matching ottoman. In addition, we purchased two reclining chairs for the second floor spare room. The plan for the spare room is a multimedia suite with the computer, stereo and eventually our own projector to watch movies. In the mean time we are fortunate that JayBee has access to a video projector from his place of work.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we watched several DVD movies in wide-screen format from the comfort of our new reclining chairs. The projector beamed X-MEN III, V for Vendetta and Underworld Evolution in 8 ft x 4 ft glory on our blank wall. Our stereo system and sub woofer added to the movie theater-like experience. Eventually speakers will be properly arranged and the wall painted white to complete the multimedia room. I will have to confer with JayBee regarding installation of the popcorn machine :-)