Governor called on to remove another from hate crime panel

Governor called on to remove another from hate crime panel Copyright by The Daily Herald
By Chuck Goudie
Daily Herald Editorial Columnist
Posted Monday, March 13, 2006


In our house and presumably many others, one of the great parental admonitions is “we don’t hate anybody or anything.” Or, a favorite variation, “we don’t use the word hate in this family.”

Then, at bedtime, we would hope that the kiddies didn’t notice the title of a favorite Disney book, “Tiggers Hate to Lose.”

As the children became a little older and much wiser, they snickered and scoffed at the hate scolding until it disappeared from the dinner table as fast as a plate of sugar cookies.

Of course the reason that our kids eventually saw through the “we don’t hate anybody or anything” rebuke is because it isn’t true.

It’s just that the things we adults hate are OK.

Like child molesters, people who torture their pets and those lucky souls who win the lottery more than once.

For a day last week, GOP candidate for governor Judy Baar Topinka seemed to hate most of the men she is running against, calling them “morons.” But then she retracted that term, so we really don’t know what she feels.

Such is the problem now facing Gov. Rod Blagojevich as he tries to weather a mutiny on his state Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes.

The storm is focused on anti-bias commission member Claudette Marie Muhammad, who works for the Nation of Islam. Blagojevich is refusing to yank Muhammad from the panel following complaints she subscribes to anti-Semitic beliefs eloquently espoused by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

“It’s completely a no-win situation,” says Hate Crimes Commission member Rick Garcia, who is political director of Equality Illinois, a gay rights organization. Garcia doesn’t think the governor should succumb to those demanding Muhammad’s removal from the panel.

Since the hate crimes stew began to boil, Garcia has been a go-to guy for the media and very open about his feelings. He says he finds some of Farrakhan’s statements “reprehensible” but doesn’t think his commission colleague Muhammad should be blamed for them.

Now though, Garcia himself is being targeted for removal from the state commission for statements he has made.

The Illinois Family Institute, based in Glen Ellyn, is asking “Gov. Rod Blagojevich to remove homosexual activist Rick Garcia from the state’s Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes — citing Garcia’s disturbing record of smearing religious-based groups and leaders who adhere to traditional Scriptural teachings on sex and marriage.”

The Illinois Family Institute describes itself as an organization intended to “protect marriage, the natural family and the sanctity of life in Illinois.” Executive Director Peter LaBarbera alleges “Rick Garcia makes a habit of ridiculing people of faith — even in his own Catholic Church — repeatedly using loaded words like ‘homophobes,’ ‘bigots,’ etc., to demonize his foes.”

Garcia tells me that indeed he has “called Francis Cardinal George a bigot because of his opposition to the basic civil rights of gay people and his opposition to the civil recognition of same-sex marriage. I stand by that charge.”

Garcia promises to “stop calling him a bigot” on one condition: “If the cardinal promotes a constitutional ban on divorce, a constitutional ban on artificial contraception and promotes legislation that only allows civil recognition of marriages recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, then I will stop calling him a bigot.”

LaBarbera says, “Equating time-honored Judeo-Christian teachings with hate and bigotry is itself an act of bigotry.”

But Garcia doesn’t put his own statements calling Cardinal George a bigot on a level with those by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan that have caused such a ruckus.

Among other things, Farrakhan has criticized “Hollywood Jews” as being responsible for promoting homosexuality and other “filth of Hollywood.”

“I challenge you to find one statement of mine, public or private, that is anywhere near as vile and repulsive as Farrakhan’s statements,” Garcia said.

Garcia doesn’t plan to quit, and Blagojevich has no intention of asking him to step down.

“Rick Garcia is one of the leading gay activists in Illinois who has focused his career on promoting equality. He was instrumental in helping to win passage of the Human Rights Act that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation,” says Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff.

“The Illinois Family Institute is a right-wing organization that consistently spews intolerance under the banner of religious enlightenment. Their recent effort to remove Rick Garcia from the Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes reflects that intolerance and will in no way alter our support of Rick’s service. It is clearly time to bring people together and not push them apart.”

The only thing that’s clear is that politically Blagojevich needs this tale to end happily ever after. Like Tigger in the Disney bedtime story, he hates to lose.