South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Palestine

Israel Palestine

It’s time to end the miserable war in Gaza

l3wis 7Comments

First off, it is NOT a war. It’s a small group of terrorists getting pummeled by Israel. Some say this is about territory, and it partially is (Israel wants the whole peninsula) but let’s call a spade a spade, this is a RELIGIOUS WAR, it has been for decades. It thoroughly disgusts and angers me we continue to fund this war, whether that’s bombs for Israel or food aid for Palestinians, I don’t want my tax dollars going to this travesty and obviously a fight over how to spell GOD. I haven’t taken sides on this, because I believe both groups have committed heinous war crimes though Israel has piled up much more, and I think when this is over you will see multiple arrests by the international courts of both Hamas and Israeli leadership. Some say this may be the last chance Israel will have to take over the peninsula. But what comes of displaced Palestinians? This isn’t going to be over, they have been throwing bombs at each other for thousands of years and they will continue until they are both wiped from the face of the earth. I think America and the International community needs to walk away from this war and stop making me PAY to KILL and STARVE CHILDREN with my tax money. The irony of what Israel is doing to Palestinians kinda reminds of what a certain guy did to the Jews. So disgusting it just makes me nauseated.

1st Amendment ACLU Palestine religion SF City Council Sioux Falls

SF Neighborhood; ‘Jesus can park here, but not Allah.’

l3wis 10Comments

Every once in awhile a Sioux Falls City Councilor surprises me. Bob Litz did this yesterday when he asked Mike Cooper from the Planning department this question (Jan 20th info meeting), in reference to the zoning of the NEW Islamic Center,

“Why is there a disparency between what the fire code requires in occupancy and what the zoning commission requires?”

Cooper responded, “It’s very complex.” And he added that the fire department has different standards. Uh, well duh, Mike, that’s why Bob asked the question. Shouldn’t the fire department and Zoning commission be on the same page?

But this isn’t about occupancy, it’s about bigotry.

Cory from Madville writes a great post about the veiled bigotry that I have been concerned about for awhile towards the new Islamic Center.

It all started a few weeks back at a SF city council informational meeting (Jan 5th) when a ‘concerned citizen’ (Ignorant/Hypocritical Protestant) took pictures and shot video of African-American immigrant Muslims protesting Israel’s attack on Gaza across the street in a public park from the other Islamic center on 6th street. Councilor Staggers asked the gentleman what his feelings were on the First Amendment, and the guy seem to be confused about it’s meaning and started talking about city ordinances, etc. Staggers reminded the citizen that the U.S. Constitution trumps all municipal and state laws and as long as their protesting was peaceful he couldn’t do anything about it.

Later at the City Council meeting I thanked Staggers for reminding the citizen about the First Amendment and I also said publicly if any of these protesters feel threatened or intimidated by the local authorities that need to contact the National Coalition Against Censorship or the ACLU for legal advice.

This is flat out bigotry because of their faith, that’s it, and it is pretty obvious. I will say the city and council have been doing their best to handle the zoning issue as smoothly as possible, it’s the citizens in this neighborhood that are causing problems and continue to hassle the city about restricting them, even though most (Christian) worship facilities in Sioux Falls are in residential areas.

I don’t belong to any religion, so I don’t care if people are dancing naked around old sprint car tires in their churches, just as long as they follow zoning rules they have the right to do whatever they want to in their church, the First Amendment guarantees it.

I suggest the Islamic Center contacts the ACLU and get some legal advice before this thing blows up into something bigger.

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