Tim Wildmon

AFA president

July 2009 – You may recall the 2004 story about a kindergartener in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, who wanted his mom to come read to his classmates during his “All About Me” time. The mother, Donna K. Busch, was going to read a story from the Bible, her son’s favorite book. Instead, the school said she could not read from the Bible. Other books were fine, just not the Bible.

So Mrs. Busch decided to take her case to federal court claiming her First Amendment rights were being denied. On June 1, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Mrs. Busch could not read a Bible story to the children because to do so was unconstitutional.

My, how America has changed.

Are you among those, like me, who remember student-delivered devotionals over the loud speaker in public school? I remember in third grade learning to read the 23rd Psalm as part of our class assignment. Some of you remember when prayer and a Bible verse began the day. That was commonplace in most parts of the country for decades, centuries even. And to learn now that, all that time, we Americans were disobeying our own U.S. Constitution and didn’t even know it. And then the American Civil Liberties Union came along and saved the day.

It’s strange to me how the Bible is used to swear in the president of the United States on the steps of the Capitol in front of the whole world, and pastors can read from the Scriptures at the inauguration, yet a mother is forbidden to read that same Bible in a Pennsylvania kindergarten classroom.

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By now you have probably heard the quote from a 2001 speech by President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor that has stirred some controversy, but in case you missed it, here it is: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

As much as Judge Sotomayor and her defenders try to explain that comment away, it can’t be done. It is too blatantly racist and sexist by the standards liberals have set for the rest of us over the years. Imagine President Bush nominating someone who said, “I would hope that an Anglo male, with the richness of his experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion than a Hispanic woman who hasn’t lived that life.”

The Bush nominee would have had to withdraw within 24 hours. The liberal media would be covering this as a scandal, showing footage of KKK cross burnings as they talked about the guy. Nancy Pelosi would be doing back flips on the Senate floor (not a pretty picture), and Al Sharpton would be howling at the moon. We all know this to be true. Yet, when it is Obama who nominates someone who has made such in-your-face racist, sexist comments, these same people get group laryngitis.

If Obama does not make Sotomayor repudiate her own words here, these liberal groups and civil rights leaders have lost any credibility they had left. 

I’m reminded of the National Organization for Women (NOW) during the Bill Clinton years in the White House. NOW built its reputation on fighting male domination in society and for abortion rights. Yet they were fully supportive of Clinton-the-notorious-womanizer, the president who used his power to take advantage of a young female. The reason NOW didn’t go after Clinton on misogyny charges, as they would have done if a pro-life president had done this, is that Clinton agreed with NOW on abortion. That was it, pure and simple.

It’s the same thing here. The liberal media, politicians and civil rights leaders agree with Obama’s politics, so they will give Sotomayor a pass. These people are hypocrites. Another example: Trent Lott makes an off-the-cuff remark (that Strom Thurmond would have been a good president) at a private birthday party for Thurmond, and the media hounds Lott until he gives up his majority leadership position. Yet, a liberal Supreme Court nominee says something far worse and more direct in a prepared speech, and we are told she is simply expressing her “life experiences.”

Sotomayor will be confirmed. And I part ways with some conservatives in that I don’t believe in filibustering federal judicial appointees. The Constitution authorizes the president to appoint, and the Senate should have hearings and then vote up or down.

Until next time, this is white male Tim Wildmon in search of rich life experiences so that I can make better decisions than …