Wichita’s libertarian leanings are being tested by the two-pronged assault on X-rated businesses. The efforts by the Wichita City Council, led by Mayor Carlos Mayans, to more tightly restrict where and how sex-related businesses can operate by the end of the year seem reasonable enough, especially in areas such as Old Town or WaterWalk where the city has invested tax dollars in development. But the First Amendment has always provided such businesses broad protection, and rightly so. And Cap Parlier makes a compelling point in a My View commentary in Wednesday’s Eagle: Aren’t the citizens involved in the Operation Southwind petition “imposing their moral values on private behavior”? Might their time be better spent working through their churches to reduce the demand for pornography?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
All Americans are right to be angry about the London bombings and other violence done by some claiming to be acting on behalf of Islam. But it is wrong for area residents to blame all Muslims for such heinous acts, or to try to link them to the Islamic Society of Wichita, which so proudly opened a new mosque this month. So it was encouraging to see more than 50 people of various faiths come together Tuesday in Wichita to condemn the hateful, bigoted, anti-Muslim statements made locally since the July 7 attacks. As The Eagle editorial board said on Sunday, “members of the local Muslim community have provided no reason — none — to either question their allegiances or fear them.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Jane Fonda may be asking for trouble — including worse than being spit upon, as she was in Kansas City, Mo., earlier this year — by planning to travel the nation in a vegetable oil-fueled bus to hold anti-war protests on the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion next March. But she has found allies in some military families unhappy with the White House. And with polls showing a growing frustration among the American people with the casualties and slow progress in Iraq, you have to wonder why it’s falling to the most famous Vietnam War opponent to get aggressive about publicly opposing this war.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ office issued a statement last week denying it has any authority over Kansas Department of Corrections manager Margie Phelps for her hate group’s off-hours picketing of U.S. soldiers’ funerals. The statement read: “Whether or not we agree with an employee’s personal choices, we cannot punish them for their personal behavior or political beliefs exercised outside the workplace if those actions do not impact workplace activity.”
What if we learn that a top aide to the governor, on off-hours, is a practicing member of the Ku Klux Klan and picketing the funerals of blacks? Would the governor simply issue a statement saying he had a right to free speech? You can bet he’d lose his job or be transferred to the mailroom so fast it would make your head spin.
An Eagle reader asked: What if Phelps was Muslim American, and going around blessing IEDs and the killing of our troops? She’d probably be in Guantanamo, under interrogation.
Want to tell the governor what you think of Margie Phelps representing you as a state employee? E-mail her office at governor@state.ks.us.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Because U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts has only been on the federal appeals bench for two years, Democrats are making a fuss about needing to see everything he wrote as an attorney in the administrations of former presidents Bush and Reagan. But if they get their hands on these writings, which arguably are subject to attorney-client privilege anyway, they shouldn’t mistake them for Roberts’ personal views. They should be taken for the arguments of a hired gun on behalf of his client.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
As we wait for the special prosecutor to finish probing the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name, the Senate Intelligence Committee chaired by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., plans to examine the use of cover to protect the identities of intelligence officers. Roberts acknowledged Sunday that outing an agent is a “very serious matter” — and a crime, we’d add. But he also said of Plame: “I must say from a commonsense standpoint, driving back and forth to work to the CIA headquarters — I don’t know if that really qualifies as being, you know, covert,” he said Sunday on CNN. Let’s hope such comments don’t mean that Roberts is more interested in casting doubt on Plame’s need for cover than on preventing more such breaches.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
