Recently DFE weighed in on the whole Maggie Brooks Election 2007 Pledge/Porn-mania! ™Â  We quoted him here, and it kicked off a ***STORM*** of controversy on the D&C’s Chili blogger’s blog.  A respectful (mostly) discussion ensued, with one question unanswered.  If this is a fight that Brooks will not win due to things like, uh, the Constitution, why would she waste taxpayer money grandstanding about it then taking it to court?

It really does seem that this is just election year politics.

Another interesting thing came out of the discussion.  Jerri Kaiser, one of the D&C Editorial Board community members, made the comment:

I think Ms. Brooks will lose in court. That is just my opinion as a citizen. The expenditure of county resources on this troubles me because we have 30% of our city’s residents living below the poverty line. The mayor told me today that 48% of our city’s residents don’t graduate high school. These are the issues that affect our daily lives. How can we be complacent when our neighbors are hungry, undereducated and therefore have a bleak future?

I like that she’s got her priorities in the right place.  I really like that. A lot.  But she also said this:

The more we talk/type about this issue the more it validates Ms. Brooks’ decision to threaten the library instead of working with them. It creates a buzz, the humming of distraction for the worker bees in the hive. Let’s quiet the buzz and advocate for the things that matter here, honey. Otherwise, we all get stung.

And it got me thinking.  Are we playing into the hands of Minarik/Brooks by raising such an anti-stink to match the stink they’re raising?  Are we better served by ONLY advocating for more basic issues?  After a lot of thought, I don’t think so.  Reasons after the fold.

1. I believe in challenging right-wing hypocrisy wherever it rears its ugly head.

2. I also believe in advocating for the poor and disadvantaged. But Metro Justice has been doing this for 35+ years, and they’ve got it covered.  Not that we won’t help however we can, whenever we can, in getting MJ’s message and activism out.  It informs what we’re trying to do here. Which brings me to…

3. I believe in working as smart as we can to promote and cultivate a progressive Rochester. Part of that “working smarter” means going after root causes. And I believe that the corruption at the county level and the conservative movement is excavating the cliff out from under us while we try to help the disadvantaged climb up. Therefore…

4. Removing/reforming the centers of power locally, to have a more progressive focus, is essential to our local progressive movement.  Otherwise MetroJustice’s impassioned, informed pleas will fall on deaf, even contepmtuous ears. So…

5. We have to challenge right-wing hypocrisy wherever it rears it’s ugly head.  Becausewho else is doing that around here?  The D&C’s hands are tied by its ties to Brooks, RBA, and GRE.  The City Paper and MetroJustice are doing their best but they can use all the help they can get from a political perspective.

So, it’s up to us.

And to Jerri S. Kaiser, I say, as Sam Kineson, the crazy teacher, said in Rodney Dangerfield’s “Back to School”, “Good answer.  Good answer.  I’m going to keep my eye on you.”