Posted on 01/19/2004 11:26:29 AM PST by TaxRelief
01/19/2004 Associated Press A city council member placed a granite block bearing the Ten Commandments on a walkway in front of a city hall deserted on Monday's Martin Luther King holiday.
Vernon Robinson, a black conservative who has been on the city council since 1998, said he and four helpers acted on the holiday because the barren adjoining parking lot allowed him to move in a truck and crane to position the one-ton block.
The monument — inscribed on one side with the Ten Commandments and on the other side with the Bill of Rights — was positioned on a landing of the stairway ascending to the 1930s city hall at dawn Monday, Robinson said.
Robinson said he had no permit or other authorization to place the monument on public property.
The $2,000 cost of buying and moving the four- tall, blue-granite block was entirely his own, said Robinson, who is running for a vacant U.S. House seat.
Mayor Allen Joines did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the city's response.
"This display is intended to acknowledge the undeniable role that the Ten Commandments and Bill of Rights have played in developing the American legal tradition," Robinson said in a telephone interview.
"These are the ideas on which society has been built and these works encapsulate the belief system on which the republic was founded."
Robinson said he was inspired to act by former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who ordered a 2 1/2-ton Ten Commandments monument placed in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building in 2001.
A federal judge found the monument to be an unconstitutional promotion of religion by government in 2002. Moore was removed from office last year for violating ethics rules by not obeying the federal court order to remove the monument.
Robinson said the monument was quarried and cut in Georgia and shipped from there.
And Rosa Parks.
It's a peaceful protest; what did he do wrong, litter?
As far as politics goes, if the people want an attention-getter in Congress, they'll like this, if they don't, they won't. The voting public is the ultimate arbiter, notwithstanding your personal disgust for politicians with principles. (Also, I'm still waiting for Roy Moore's 2004 senate race against Richard Shelby -- some folks GUARANTEED me that was what his stand was all about.)
If there's anything more tiresome than a showboater, it's an unoriginal showboater.
Hey, Vern: it's been done, OK? And if your role model is that fool in Alabama, you raise real concerns about yourself.
The winner of the North Carolina 5th Congressional District will be decided in the GOP primary. There are better candidates, and better potential Representatives, than Mr. Robinson.
I wouldn't. They seem to be doing OK.
I have to applaud this move! It'll play well in this tobacco & banking town of 180,000 people that largely remains conservative.
When one prediction fails, move on to the next one!
Who do you like?
It won't work, and it'll be boring as hell.
Dang, I was afraid someone was going to ask that.
Down here southeast of Charlotte, we get almost no news on the District 5 race (parts of Winston-Salem, and a chunk of the Blue Ridge Mountains and their foothills, for those who don't know, and a safe GOP seat). State Senator Virginia Foxx and Mr. Robinson are the only two I have much familiarity with, and of the two, I'd prefer Ms. Foxx. I've seen accusations of RINOism, but based on her voting record and her declared positions, I don't find them credible.
Frankly, Robinson seems to be getting the most press and the most buzz just because he's black -- the novelty of a black Republican is attractive to some, I suppose. I find him a bit overbearing, and certainly this silly stunt doesn't elevate his stature in my eyes.
I haven't heard too much positive about Ed Broyhill; evidently, the genes have thinned out in that GOP dynasty. And I know nothing about Jay Helvey, other than that he only recently moved back to NC, and that he's largely self-financing his campaign -- neither of these disqualifies him, but they don't make me want to jump on his bandwagon.
So I'm undecided here, as I am on the Gubernatorial primary. There's something about Robinson that rubs me wrong, but I'll keep an open mind.
Gee, just what I need--crawling gingerly around 15-20 homeless persons sleeping on a walkway outside city hall when I'm trying to renew my dog's license.
My last encounter with a homeless couple had me trying to get around them as they drank cheap wine inside the front entrance to my former office building. Because I asked them to move aside so I could get around them (it was a fairly small area) and up the steps lead one of them making a death threat towards me and the other chasing me down the block, trying to punch me out. They were both arrested for disorderly conduct and public drunkeness.
LOL! They're the same ones--these two were strays from a local homeless shelter that kicked them out during the day. When the cops took my statement, they told me they both had rather impressive records, both on paper (probation or parole), the cops were glad to give them "new homes" (one had a warrant out on him) & they knew them by their first names. They also had a good talk with the manager of the homeless shelter.
But if I remember correctly, the dems in Milwaukee were recruiting out of the Rescue Mission---same clientele, as it were, from the homeless shelter in our town.
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