I hate grand-standing, opportunistic politicans who cloak themselves in patriotism or morality and proclaim how "offended" they are by someone else's behavior purely for the sake of basking in the projected honor and glory.
What brought on this unusual reaction (for me) is an article in our local newspaper on the continuing saga of St. Louis (Minnesota) County Commissioner Keith Nelson who got caught on camera (with the active support of YouTube distribution) making an off-the-cuff response to a silly question at a County Board meeting. Basically, there was a debate on a smoking ban in our county and this guy was opposed to the smoking ban because a majority of his constituents, who he's supposed to be representing, opposed the ban (I mean, isn't that his job in a representative democracy?) In a clever use of argumentation and rhetoric, another commissioner, Bill Kron, asked him if he would have voted "for slavery" if a majority of his constituents did. Stuck in the situation with the need to respond to a rather silly and irrelevant question while reinforcing his point about being a representative for his constituents, he said "Yes." And that started a firestorm of controversy. Now, this whole exchange was repositioned as an elected official advocating in favor of slavery!!!!
Today, the paper reported that he apologized to the Human Rights Commission and agreed to try and take some diversity training. As one of my favorite journalists, John Stossel, likes to say, Give Me A Break! I wish Keith Nelson had instead responded to the question during the meeting by saying "Sir, if a majority of your constituents were against slavery, but you personally believed that slavery was good, would you have voted for it?" That would have put the other commissioner in his place and made everyone realize how stupid and irrelevant that question was. While I don't know Keith Neilson or the other Commissioner, I can identify political correctness run amuck. From what I saw, this man was not advocating or supporting slavery in any way, but was responding to an odd and ridiculous question. To any intelligent person (who is not looking to take advantage of such situations), there was no intent to glorify slavery or support it in any way.
Instead, this man found himself constantly apologizing to everyone from pious Ministers to, recently, the Human Rights Commission. According to today's paper, "I was offended by your statement," Commission Member Linda Esala told Nelson. If this is all it takes to offend Ms. Esala, she should consider herself the beneficiary of the great civil rights leaders who have come before her. I find it offensive that this commission is obviously taking advantage of this slip in the middle of a debate on a smoking ban. Why wasn't commissioner Bill Kron taken to task for asking such a ridiculously irrelevant question? Why wasn't he criticized for equating a smoking ban with slavery? He gets off scot free and Mr. Nelson, who just happened to be on the wrong end of the question gets to spend the rest of his career living this down.
You can watch the video of the response on YouTube below.
Read the latest article (from the Minneapolis Star Tribune) here.
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