Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Marion Barry's Attitude Toward Robbery Informs NEA Spending
Marion Barry, ex-D.C. mayor and jailbird, was robbed at gunpoint Monday. But that's not the most important part of the story:
"I have no animosities," Barry declared. "I don't even want you prosecuted, really. I love you. Give yourself up. Call the police. . . . I will do all I can to advocate non-prosecution."Mr. Barry's willingness not to hold potential murderers responsible for their actions should come at no surprise. This man who says that he is a supporter of D.C.'s youth sees no reason to encourage responsible behavior:
"There is a sort of an unwritten code in Washington, among the underworld and the hustlers and these other guys, that I am their friend," Barry said at an afternoon news conference in which he described the robbery in detail..."When I go home in the evening or come out in the morning or weekend, the young people are all over me, asking for money, begging for money. 'Give me a dollar. Give me five dollars,' " Barry said.As a consistent liberal, Mr. Barry says that the answer to prevent incidents such as this is tougher guns laws, even though owning a gun in D.C. is illegal.
Yesterday, Barry called for a summit among the city's leaders to address gun violence. And he said he will prod the council to pass a bill he introduced to stiffen penalties for carrying a gun in the District.I am of the opinion that because liberals cannot draw a straight line between cause and effect you see behavior such as Barry's. As a second example, consider that the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the NEA, the gigantic teachers union, spends their members money on almost everything but, well, public education:
If we told you that an organization gave away more than $65 million last year to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Amnesty International, AIDS Walk Washington and dozens of other such advocacy groups, you'd probably assume we were describing a liberal philanthropy. In fact, those expenditures have all turned up on the financial disclosure report of the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers union.Maybe they should help Mr. Barry by funding the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.