"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." --Bishop Desmond Tutu

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Alaska Rep Don Young: A little racist? Maybe...

Alaska Representative Don Young reacted to his fraternal colleague Ted Stevens' conviction this way:
"I'm deeply disappointed," he said in an interview. "It surprises me. I don't think he had a jury of his peers."
Hmmmm, a jury of his peers. What would "a jury of his peers" look like to Representative Young, I wonder? Probably nothing like the jury that Stevens had in DC which was mostly African-American. There aren't too many African-Americans back in Anchorage, that's for sure. So does he mean that African-American's aren't Senator Stevens' peers? Or is it just DC residents that aren't his peers? And why aren't they his peers?

What is he trying to say here? Do you think he means peers as in Peers of the Realm? They would certainly be more white than the DC jury, that's for sure. Do you think they'd be more forgiving of Senator Stevens' little indiscretions?

Perhaps. But now we'll never know. Because Stevens was tried by a jury of his peers, 12 Americans sitting in judgment of a corrupt public official. It's the way the system was designed to work. And work it did.

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