I saw this on Olbermann tonight:
Illinois State Rep. (D) from Chicago lost her mind and went off on an atheist activist testifying before the State Assembly today.
The link contains another link to the audio. You can hear Rep. Davis becoming progressively more shrill and strident. I think she actually sounds afraid – like she thinks Sherman is going to breathe fire at her or something.
I admire Sherman’s coolness under attack. I probably would have used some salty language. What a crazy bitch.
Er, actually, it was last Wednesday, nearly a week ago.
I’m thinking internal polling showed her that her district was deeply religious and her re-election prospects were looking thin, so she had to do something to endear herself to the polls.
Either that or she’s batshit crazy.
Damn. That’s a tough one.
Can’t she be both, like the late Earl Warren?
Okay. I should have checked the date.
I don’t condone any attacks, true.
I can see, though, how this can get heated. I don’t know if Rep. Davis is a member of the Pilgrim Baptist Church which was slated to get state funds for its reconstruction. But I do know that the accidental burning of that church has been a traumatic thing for many people.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t support using state funds to reconstruct a church. However, this one has an undeniable role in American cultural history as the birthplace of gospel music. If state funds aren’t used to rebuild it, I’ll send a check along, and if they are, I won’t be disappointed. And I say that as someone who left the Baptists behind in my own belief system ages ago.
All that said, Mr. Sherman should have been treated better.
I think it might be nice if the media in general explained the importance of this particular church - but that might be asking a bit much.
Pilgrim Baptist church is important from an architectural standpoint as well. It was designed (originally as a synagogue) by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Both very famous (at least in Chicago), but Sullivan trained under Daniel Burnham and later trained Frank Lloyd Wright. Here is a Wikipedia link of the building, for those interested.
Sorry for furthering the hijack.
Actually, Rep. Davis is a member of Trinity Church in Chicago – the same church now made famous by Barack Obama and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
The issue before the Assembly was not material to me. You may well be right that it deserves funds to be rebuilt. I’ll take your word for it. My issue was with Davis’ completely gratuitous tirade against atheism, not with the substance of the hearing. Telling Sherman “you have no right to be here” particularly pisses me off. He had every right to be there whether his argument ultimately had merit or not. Imagine if Davis’ exact same rant had been delivered about Jews or Catholics.
I won’t dispute that at all.
I sure don’t want to read too much into one particular set of remarks, especially unhinged ones. That being said, though, in a community organized around faith to the extent that the black community is, atheism could well be distrusted much more than in the society at large.
I can’t look up much until tomorrow - it is bedtime. But some friends I had in college who were black and atheist reported getting a lot of grief from their families. Perhaps there is a real cultural disconnect there.
Again, can’t reiterate enough, that doesn’t excuse anything.
“Ma’am, would that be the same Lincoln who said ‘The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion’?”
I was listening to the audio, thinking- “Well, this is kinda extreme rhetoric but I don’t hear the crazed fervor everyone’s accusing her of…”
Then the audio got about 60% through & BINGO- Meltdown!
Damn, that guy must have thought “Mine adversary hath been delivered into my hands!”
I take this as evidence that the American Taliban is not exclusively found within the far right of the political spectrum.
The part that chilled me the most was, “And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!”
In Sunday’s Trib, columnist Eric Zorn mentioned this incident, observed that it had received ZERO news coverage, and asked what other philosophy or belief system could be attacked in this manner and not make the news.
Rob Sherman is a superstar in his tireless efforts to protect against state sponsored religion. His daughter is the named plaintiff in the pending case challenging the stupid recent school prayer law.
Several studies have shown that atheists are the most hated group in America. It comes as no surprise to this atheist that such comments were made by a public official in a public forum, and that they received little attention.
*Oops. Should have checked the link first. Didn’t realize it was to Zorn. I heartily recommend him as a reasonable voice.
And not to hijack this but of course she manages to drag gun control into her meltdown, something that happens to make the news every single night these days. The city of Chicago should be made into it’s own special county and be forced to leave the rest of us Illinois folk alone, the corrupt and stupid bastards. I know lots of you don’t have the thrilling privilege of getting to see our nightly newscasts but you’d be appalled if you could. Half of the city is run by damned near open crooks, the other half by the dumbest bunch of assholes you’ve ever seen in your life, and in some cases both if you count Todd Stroger.
I’ve lived here for most of my life, but sometimes, man, fuck Chicago.
Oh, in case it’s not obvious, Monique Davis’s district is in the city of Chicago. Just more of the same with these dumbfucks dragging their problems downstate for everyone else to have to deal with.
It’s true that it’s dangerous, but not dangerous for the kids. It’s dangerous for religion in general for people to not be raised with the idea that God exists as an unchallenged axiom.
So, atheism is “extremely dangerous”, but crackpot conspiracy theories about the government inventing the AIDS virus are just fine and dandy. :rolleyes:
That would indeed have been helpful. Now I see what she’s so upset about.
It would also have clarified the way in which the content of her speech was misleading. She implied that this is all about “God” when what it’s about is a historical landmark. Indeed–she hurts her cause by allowing it to be about “God.”
-FrL-
Even beating out Muslims?!
Isn’t it already?