tearing down walls
All politics is local. Including the politcs of ‘Dear god! We are living in a puriaticinal police state!’. The latest panic atack comes in the form of a developement project here localy to me.
In a nutsehll, they are tearing down an abandoned building and several other adjecent buildings to put in new construction. The problem? One of the adjectnt builds has the local Gay and Lesbian Community Center on its second story. This leads naturaly into the consparicy theory that the whole project is just a sneeky underhanded trick by the right wing neocons to opress all forms of sexual expresion.
Im sure somewhere there are folks complaining about the karate school being torn down saying that its all a plot by the pacifist left who are againt all forms of violence. And somewhere there are folks sprouting off that the movie thearater is being closed by the evil media congrolements who are trying to consolidate their power. And probably someone is complaining that the true reason behind the closing of the coffee house is because their freedoms are being shreaded by whatever group that coffe drinkers think are opresing them and holding them down.
I was at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center last week and was aucsted by a political activist who demanded that we could not let such an atrocety happen and that we must all ban together to ‘do something’. Sad how activists would never think that ‘do something’ woudl include donating money to help in moving expences or voluntering their time to help pack boxes or carry furniture down the steps. No. To a political activists ‘do something’ woudl be to run to the city councle begging them to freeze time. Government will save us. Beautiful wonderful government. Government will keep us all safe and happy. Wonderful loving soothing governemnt. Lets all go patetion the city councle and together we will be able to ’save’ the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.
Its the plot of every bad 80’s B-movie. The evil corporate land developers mussle their way in and threatet to close down the comunity center. And we know the land devlopers are evil because they are businessmen and all business is evil. The ragtag group of misfits must come up with the zany play to save their home.
Would the same holoywood-plot line of thinking also hold if the situation were reversed? What if it was some kinf of anti-gay mearting place that was being unfairly targeted? Well, thats kind of what is happening over on the other side of the state in philidephia.
The philly chapter of the scouts is getting kicked out of its building. Now Im no fan of the scouts. The stupid crap they brainwash people with about knots is the absoulte bane of erotic bondage. But this issue with them getting kicked from their building is a difrent matter.
The scouts have long been pidgenholed as a ‘hate group’ by gay rights activicts. However, there is nothign in their policy that attempts to impact OTHERS. Their policy of not including gays is a purely internal matter. The policy is only for their own membership rolls. It says nothing about anyone or anything that isnt part of the scouts. They are not atacking others and the courts have held repeatabaly that as a private orgnization they do hate the right to a first adnment freedom of association.
So in Philly there is an effort going on to make an end-run around freedom of association. The theory is that since the scouts is a private orgnization that it should act privatly and not get money from the government like a public orgnization does. But I spot several holes in this argument.
First and formost, there is no government money going to the scouts. Let me demonstrate by way of example. Say I crook robbs a bank. All the bills are sequentaly numbered and you can track where those stolden bills wind up going. Now say the same crook runs up to me on the street and takes my wallet. Did I get money from the crook? Are there any of those numbered bills that wind up in my pocket as a result? Clearly not, because the crook did not GIVE me anything. He TOOK. So far so good. Now say the crook goes down the street further and takes someone else wallet. That person had more money in their wallet than I did. Again, are there any numbered bills from the bank heist that wind up in my pocket? Again no. The fact that the crook took less dollas from me than from someone else dosent change the ‘take’ to a ‘give’. The crook is still not giving me anything. The crook is still taking.
Its these same word games that get tossed around in the philly scout case. The government is not giving money to the scouts. The scouts are giving money to the government. Just not as much as what some folks consider ‘fair’. But that dosent change the fact that no dollar is comming out of the hands of the politician and into the hands of the scouts. Call it a sweatheart deal if you want, but dont call it money flowing from government to scouts.
But anyway? What is ‘fair’? Since the building was original constructed by the scouts and then gifted to the government, it would seem its the government that is the one getting the sweetheart deal. Especialy when you add on to the top that the scouts are still picking up the cost of maintiance and upkeep (as well as funding for a renovation project) to a building they dont techinaly own. Even more of a sweetheart deal. It would seem that its ‘fair’ to give back a mutiual sweetheart deal in return and charge the scouts a low rent.
So now we get down to the nitty gritty. Just how much of a sweetheart deal is the government giving the scouts on rent in return for the sweetheart deal the scouts gave the government in the gift of the building? Answer: one dollar a year. So even though the scouts isnt techinaly ‘getting’ any money from the government, you gotta admit that getting rent so far under fair market value is one hell of a sweetheart deal. (lets leave aside for the moment the issue of the highly quoted ‘fair market value’ of the property being nearly twice the cost per square foot of the most expensice place in the whole city)
And because of a anti-discrimination law in philly, you cant have such a lucritive sweetheart deal with any orgnization that discriminates. Be totaly self suporting and you can have whatever membership you want. But if you ~get~ money like that, then the government has a say in what membership rolls should be.
But wait. That law was passed in 1982. The contreversy over the rent payment didnt start untill 2003. If the scouts broke the anti-discrimination law, why did the city continue to let them break the law for over 20 years? And it dosent end there. Mutiple other orgnizations are getting sweetheart deals from the government for their rent also. These include The Colonial Dames of America, the Roman Catholic Church of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Zion Baptist Church. All groups with an exclusionary membership policy.
Eariler this year, the scouts had enough of being called a ‘hate group’ and being singlaraly targed under this 20 year old law when no other orgnization reciving similar deals is getting any scrutiny at all. So they filed a lawusit.
Just to recap: when a movie theater + karati school + restraunt + coffe house + gay comunity center are all force out of their building together as a group, this is caleld singling out gays in an unfair atack. But when the scouts are forced out of their building with no complainst to a baptist church, a Daughters of the American Revolution wannabe, or a zionist group, this is not singling out the scouts in an unfair atack.
There are more than enough real reasons the scouts suck. Ya dont need to go making up some story about how they are a ‘hate group’ and how they are steeling taxpayer dollars.