Mayor Verner on the Fence - Again

Jacob H. Reis, in his July 24-30 Inlander article, has neatly laid out the role of Mayor Mary Verner in the recent okay given by the Spokane City Council for big-box stores on the upper south side. The mixing of a stance and a no stance by Verner is very familiar to me. I was involved in a negotiation she set up between several large stores and PJALS over the living wage issue. At that time I was on the PJALS side, though now I do not support their efforts. But that is beside the point. Mary said she supported us privately but could not go public with her support. Were her reasons only political? Or was it an issue of her role as mediator? You know, during the Reign of Terror in France, it could be said the cart drivers who hauled the victims to the guillotine had gotten the parties in the dispute together. I detect a bit of that flavor in the mayor's approach to many problems.

Eucharist Heist and Hullabaloo

A drama is playing out on the state/church front - again. Here are the players: The University of Central Florida, a public school which somehow allows a Catholic Church - our second player - to hold masses on its campus; Student Senator Webster Cook; Paul Z. Myers, a University of Minnesota associate professor and atheist,;and Bill Donahue, a national leader of Catholic lay people.

The early action: On Sunday June 29 Cook, according to him, instead of consuming the Eucharist was going to take it back to his pew to show to a friend. But after a few steps he was busted. As a female church leader tried to wrestle the wafer from his hand, he broke loose, put it in his mouth and raced out taking the sacred item with him as a hostage. He has since returned the wafer but an ensuing battle rages across the country. Church officials deny any physical confrontation and claim that Cook was disruptive and disrespectful at mass.

Comment: Once a school or a park or whatever "leases out'' a location, the location loses its public character and somehow becomes private property so far as protest is concerned. I believe that is the law and it often happens for political rallies and such. So Cook, if he was protesting in any way, had no right to do so without permission from the Church, which he clearly did not have. But what business did the school have in letting a mass be said there anyhow?

Later action: On July 8 Myers posted a blog where he attacked the church and the school (which is considering disciplinary action against Cook) as ignoramuses. He further volunteers to truly desecrate the Eucharist in public if someone will only mail him one or more. At this point , Donahue enters and demands the University of Minnesota fire Myers who is soliciting letters of support to the university president. Meanwhile, Myers and Cook are both getting death threats.

Comment: I have sent a note of support for Myers to his school president, not wanting any one to lose his job at the instigation of any religion. After all, he should be free to write whatever he likes on this issue. He doesn't respect religion because he considers it superstitious horse pucky. Why not say so? But further, he sees Cook as a victim. On this I'm not so sure. I believe churches, mosques, and so forth have the right to worship in private and undisturbed by atheists such as me or anyone else. It is a right to privacy. Of course, in no way should he be threatened. Fatwas are never to be tolerated from any religion.