“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the rights of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” C.S. Lewis.
Identity Politics and Victim Agendas are played out. Alderman Tom Tunney's nod to the Gay Lesbian Bi-sexual and Transgender (GLBT) cadre is the latest such nonsense with his attempt to define GLBT as a minority in order to gain capital perks from tax-payers.
Thus:
Chicago’s first openly gay alderman today re-opened the volatile debate about whether City Hall should establish contract set-asides for businesses owned by lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered residents.
Six years after raising the issue only to drop it like a hot potato, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) brought it up again during a Budget Committee hearing called to extend until 2015 a construction set-aside ordinance for minorities and women. Today, Tunney was hardpressed to explain how someone would prove they’re gay to qualify for a city set-aside — especially after the seemingly endless string of stories about minority business fraud.
“Qualified domestic partners. That could be one factor,” the alderman said.
He added, “That’s why there’s nothing passed yet in any municipality. We still need to work on the definition.”
Let's say I were a larcenous Blackguard. Recent history has taught us that there have been one or two. As a single man, a father of three children and home owner, might I not qualify? Were I to apply and say that I was, though a widower, a Proud Gay Man, would I need a like-gendered domestic partner? Or, merely the will, as Andre Malraux might to opine 'to feel Gay?' What's the test? Would I need to graphically prove Gayness? Or, might there be a more dignified loophole for this breeder Gay Wanna Be entrepreneur? T'would shock the kids and the woman I am dating, but, then again, I am a larcenous Blackguard.
Tom Tunney is a very successful business person and a very hard-working Alderman. His openly Gay tenure as Alderman has been pretty much marked by success and garnered Tunney praise from the Majority Breeders who seem to be the oppressors in this rosier shade of Identity Politics.
Gay businesses flourish. Chicago Gay Pride loudly sings that verse. Gays add to Chicago's diversity. Set-aside means a fixed game by Identity politicians. The level playing field is a field of in your dreams.
Let Gay Pride retain its proud and somber boast of its forthright and hard-working contributions to Chicago.
What is the difference between a Minority set-aside and rigged game in Commerce? Only the packaging and the editorials.
Huge thanks to Steve Jordan, banker, writer, wit and quaffer of fine Ale for the C.S. Lewis quotation in the most well-met and timely of manners!
