Republican state chairman Bob Martinez charges Lamm with making “bigoted remarks ... inciting fear and suspicion and distrust.” Bruce DeBoskey of the Anti-Defamation League says Lamm's comments will “lead to greater prejudice.” He's a “hard-core racist,” says Latino activist Veronica Barela. Offensive to Dr. [Martin Luther] King's memory, adds black pastor Paul Burleson. Slaps America in the face, summarizes [Sen. Ken] Salazar [D-CO].
So there's your jury verdict; sentencing is next. Banishment to Siberia awaits the outspoken politician-turned-professor unless he apologizes and pays restitution. Even then, the implacable establishment may order branding. The initials T.H. for “too honest,” seared on the blasphemer's cheek, will deter potential signers of his next petition.
What impermissible idea has Lamm voiced to arouse such outrage? In a January book and a July speech, he dared suggest that Americans of African or Mexican descent should first look inward at their own habits and attitudes, rather than outward at “racism and discrimination [which] clearly still exist,” and which account for the lagging educational and economic performance in those communities. Horrors.
A remedial dose of “Japanese or Jewish values, respect for learning and ambition” could do a lot to help discouraged residents of our ghettos and barrios help themselves, Lamm writes in “Two Wands, One Nation.” Citing statistics (difficult to dismiss as bigotry), he goes on:
“When two-thirds of black births are out-of-wedlock births, it is hard to write a happy or prosperous future for black America. When close to 50 percent of Hispanic students don't graduate from high school, it is hard to see Hispanics following the typical American route to prosperity.”
Most of us from whatever ethnicity would call this realism. It's bizarre to hear Butch Montoya label it extremism. But remember, it was Montoya who helped orchestrate the protest last spring when Superintendent Michael Bennet closed the low-performing, chronically dysfunctional Manual High School. Bennet argued we owe inner-city children an education that lifts them. Montoya, despite his experience overseeing the police department, seemed less interested in rescuing kids than in demagoguing the 'hood.
