Berkeley v Iowa? McCarthy an "American Hero"?

Poststructural Pub
1

HOW DIVIDED ARE WE? WHEN I READ STUFF LIKE THIS IT REMINDS ME THAT “RED STATE”-“BLUE STATE” DIFFERENCES ARE EATING AWAY THE FABRIC OF CIVILITY.

Congress snubs bid to honor Berkeley’s ailing matriarch
Name-change for post office was voted down
By Bobby Caina Calvan, Globe Correspondent | October 30, 2005

BERKELEY, Calif. – When Maudelle Shirek lost her city job two decades ago because, at 73, she was deemed too old, she fought back by getting herself elected to the City Council and promptly led the charge to dismantle the city’s policy on compulsory retirement.
Throughout her long life, the 94-year-old granddaughter of slaves has been a crusader for civil rights, the poor, senior nutrition, affordable housing, and various antiwar movements, and social causes. Over the years, she has been a fixture at Bay Area demonstrations, her silver Afro standing out among youthful throngs.
…
''She’s been arrested time and time again because she never backed away from fighting for social justice," saidBarbara Lubin, one of Shirek’s longtime friends and political allies and executive director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, a group sympathetic to Plestinians.
''We revere Maudelle Shirek like we revere Martin Luther King Jr.," Lubin said,
…
Her admirers, seeking to memorialize her legacy, sought congressional approval to rename the city’s downtown post office in her honor. But Republicans, led by the conservative Representative Steve King of Iowa, unexpectedly scuttled the accolade sought by a Shirek protegee, Representative Barbara Lee, a Democrat from Oakland.
King said Shirek wasn’t in line with ''American values" and suggested that she had an ''affiliation with the Communist Party," citing her connection to the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Oakland, which describes itself as ''an alternative library for social research."
He also took issue with Shirek’s support for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a cause celebre among some activists who say the black journalist and taxi driver, in prison in the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer, was wrongly convicted.
''That a Republican from Iowa could launch a campaign to deny naming a local post office after this 94-year-old civil rights leader, who until recently was the oldest and one of the longest serving elected officials in California, is just shameful," Lee said in a prepared statement. ''Mr. King’s campaign of innuendo and unsubstantiated ‘concern’ is better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover than today’s House of Representatives."
King responded by saying that McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who launched hearings to uncover communist sympathizers in the 1950s – and was later censured by the Senate – was an ''American hero."
But back home in Iowa, there was a backlash. The Des Moines Register expressed regret for twice endorsing King for Congress, calling his opposition to rename the Berkeley post office ''bizarre" and ''a petty, mean-spirited act of political retribution against a 94-year-old woman.
''Political vindictiveness doesn’t get much more petty than that," the paper said in an editorial calling for challengers to oppose King next year.
''To say that Joe McCarthy is a hero is frightening and shocking," said Lubin, who said Shirek, a registered Democrat, is no communist, despite her nominal connection to the Marxist library and the fact that she once had dinner with Cuban President Fidel Castro.
…
Lee said she hasn’t given up on having the post office renamed for Shirek, a two-year battle that involved persuading California Republicans to go along. When the matter finally reached the House floor last month, it was listed as a routine item that was expected to be rubber-stamped – until the Iowa Republican pulled the item for debate.
''They’ve stepped on the wrong side of history," Anderson said of the congressional Republicans who rejected the measure, 215-190. Hoping for another vote soon, Anderson urged Republicans to ''wipe off their feet and take the steps to do what’s right."
But Lee couldn’t predict how quickly the matter can return for another hearing.
''She deserves to have this post office renamed after her," Lee said in an interview. ''There cannot be enough tributes to Maudelle Shirek in the city of Berkeley."

© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/10/30/congress_snubs_bid_to_honor_berkeleys_ailing_matriarch/?page=full

2

Reckon what “politics make strange bedfellows” means? That is an odd wording, isn’t it?

3

I don’t read much in the political area. But I can’t figure out in your title if you mention Iowa because the Representative who led the opposition to naming the Post Office after Ms. Shirek is from Iowa or because the Des Moines Register (the main newspaper Iowa) in Iowa came down on the Representative.

I don’t know what Red State and Blue State mean but doesn’t this show that in the state of Iowa, at least, there is not a concensus on this issue? I don’t know anyone who would be interested in voting for someone who thought Joseph McCarthy was an “American hero”. There may be some but I guess we just have to wait for the next election to find out. I think that in the first election that Bush won, Iowa was one of the states where the voting was so close that it took forever to get the vote count.

Sorry if I misread all this. Not quite awake yet.

4

Not a comment about Iowa, although I do think Rep. King should probably spend more time on constituent services and less on worrying about naming a Post Office in Berkeley. And congratulations to the Des Moines Register. I think the political polarization all seems like an “Inside the Beltway” game that addresses “big” issues. For me this story illustrates how much it’s seeping into the smaller decisions too.

5

Hey, I’d rather keep the dude busy somewhere else thanks! :laughing:

I agree that people who spend their time on this sort of thing don’t seem to have anything worthwhile to do. I can only hope his constituents feel that way too in the next election.

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I knew it as “politics makes for strange bedfellows”. Hope that’s a little less odd for you, Walden. :wink:

7

But what is it that the politics makes for the strange bedfellows?

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Uncomfortable positions, you could say.

9

Walden suddenly drops this line of questions and backs away (quickly) toward another thread.

10

Now, now. I’m referring to the “art of compromise”.

11

I’m talking about Art for Art’s sake.

12

You know, come to think of it, I don’t know anyone named Art. Curious.

13

I do. He was my high school guidance counselor. Before that, he was my middle school principal. Before that he was my elementary school bus driver. When he retired they named the school after him. I’m not making this up.

14

There is:
Our father how is Art in heaven…
…and Harold down here.

…'course being’s we’re here I can see the case for only knowing Harold…

15

One of those renaissance kinda guys, eh?

16

Walden, I am simply agog.

17

The school is named “Art Elementary School”?

18

No. It has both his first and last name.

19

There’s something I’m not getting here. I can understand how someone might think that what McCarthy ostensibly set out to do was worthy. But what I don’t grasp is how anybody could approve of his performance. We know that he acted on innuendo and rumour and used methods of cross examination that displayed blithe unconcern for the truth and how to get to it. He was abondoned by his own party when they saw how his methods were panning out. So is he hailed as a hero for ruining the lives of innocent people? If not that, then what?

20

Surely you are not suggesting this behavior is anything other than admirable? But then what can we expect from an un-American foreign “philosophy?!?” teacher who choses a name most commonly associated with, well, an ANIMAL!!! Communism was a “philosophy”. That certainly explains your question!

Lots of good Americans haven’t gotten past hating Communism and still get all misty eyed when they recall the good old days. McCarthy was ahead of his time. Today, the Republican party wouldn’t drop him and if they did, he could get work doing news analysis on Fox.