Opinion: In today’s pages: Fraudulent voter fraud, Mr. Zuma goes to Washington, Mexicans come to (and leave) Detroit
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The editorial board calls for a reality check on McCain’s silly claims about ACORN undermining democracy. But we note that a similar check, and broader discussion, is in order on true questions about voter security.
We also express concern over the ‘religious cleansing’ of Christians from Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East and call for pressure from Muslim-dominated regions to keep pluralism alive:
The religious cleansing of Christians in Iraq is part of a larger pattern in which a faith with its origins in the Middle East is being driven out of its native region. From Iraq to Lebanon, which once claimed a Christian majority, to Bethlehem, the West Bank town revered as the birthplace of Jesus, intra-Muslim violence and the Arab-Israeli struggle have combined to persuade (and in some cases force) Christians to relocate to Europe or North America.
And the editorial board has something to say about Chicago’s new ‘gay-friendly’ high school. It seems to us that the good intentions could well be masking a strategy to make life easier for school administrators while leaving school a decidedly unfriendly place for kids who, in one way or another, don’t feel like they fit in:
Chicago’s concern for its gay students is commendable, but far from solving the problem, the creation of a cloistered, segregated environment represents an easy escape — not so much for the transferring students as for school leaders. Instead of asking whether gay teens need a respite from the meanness of high school, the school board should be asking why principals haven’t been creating campuses with zero tolerance for ugly behavior.
Lionel Beehner takes serious issue with the State Department’s ‘state sponsors of terrorism’ list, which the writer sees as just a farcical excuse for punishing nations the United States doesn’t like, instead of a tool to stop terrorism. Meanwhile, South African journalist Mark Gevisser looks at his nation’s political situation in the post-Mbeki era, as well as the challenges –- and opportunities –- facing African National Congress leader (and likely president) Jacob Zuma as he comes to Washington for meetings with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. And perhaps others:
In the unlikely event that he meets with Barack Obama, one would hope that the Democratic candidate would interrogate his visitor about something he knows only too well, from his own father’s experiences in Kenya: that patronage governs politics to an extremely unhealthy degree in Africa, and that government corruption is inevitable.
Last, but certainly not least, Times columnist Gregory Rodriguez writes about Mexicans settling down for work – in Detroit.
Acorn photo: AP