Mork says: >"Suing > OK, obvious that Heller and Graham flamboyantly missed the message again. > Suing "The City" is most EMPHATICALLY not suing Sayles Belton, Cherryhomes, > or anyone like that." No Mr. Mork, we got your message loud and clear. We did not miss what you said, it was incredible. If incredible means not being credible.
Unfortunately "We" are unable to sue those individuals who cause the problems when they are in office. What Jim Mork is showing is he apparently is either "that naive", or in the heat of the moment -- when his breath caught and his heart raced at the thought of "His" taxes -- he forgot those people are no longer in office. Of course the new lords of the City carry on in the same way. Mork demonstrates just why it is necessary to sue the City. It is to get the attention of those like Mork who are blind to social injustice but squeal like a pig if they think their taxes might go up. Vicki is not the naive one about economics and "breaking the law". The reason to sue is because the City HAS broken the law and systematically created an "institutional pattern of discrimination". The reason I continue to use those words in quotation marks is because the Supreme Court has ruled that a single act in of itself does not have to be with malice or intent to be discriminatory if it is part of a "pattern of discrimination". If a City, or other Institution, continually and habitually engages in practices and policies that create a pattern of discrimination, then that pattern is the same as individual acts with intent and malice to discriminate. The very reason we have Federal Court is for the "People" to have somewhere to go to plead for assistance to redress such wrongs, discrimination, and harm our other levels of government do to those same people. The "people" in impacted neighborhoods are not "businesses" they are the individuals that are discriminated against. They are not suing for a "soft piece of the action" they are just suing to stop the City from CONTINUING the discrimination. They are suing to get the same level of services and police protection that those in "better white neighborhoods" get. The City NOT providing "Equal Protection" under the law and violating "Concentration" and "Impacted Area" rulings does in fact "break the law". The residents of "Impacted Neighborhoods" are suing because the City IS breaking the law! Mr. Mork and some others seem bothered that it might cost them a couple of tax dollars because the "VICTIMS" of crime have the gall to ask that the crime be stopped! "How dare that rabble make noise and bother us about their plight? If God had intended that they live in better neighborhoods he would have given them more money, like us!" I had started to say that the intent of such lawsuits is not to harm the good, but blind, residents of "better neighborhoods" (such as Mr. Mork), but realized I was possibly wrong. Mr. Mork has worried that it is he that would end up paying part of the cost. Then as I typed the part about "Institutional pattern of discrimination" I realized that it in fact is those same "good" liberal people from "better neighborhoods" who have allowed and participated in the actual discrimination against poor people and minority communities. By their obtuse blindness to the social plight of those impacted communities and neighborhoods they were in fact actively participating in that very same pattern of discrimination. Politicians have created that pattern and those "containment zones" because they think the powerful voting public (from those communities such as the one Mr. Mork lives in) wants to keep poverty and crime "contained". The reason they create "Supportive Housing" concentrations in violation of the City's own law and Federal Law is that the politicians believe this makes their better off "voting" constituents happy. So yes, I am happy it gets Mr. Mork's attention. But don't you wish Jim Mork were writing posts demanding that "HIS" Council Member, and HIS Mayor immediately do something to stop this pattern. Instead of condemning those who are being discriminated against for having the courage to plead for the discrimination to stop, Mr. Mork might save himself some money by HIS demanding that the discrimination stop. The phone numbers are 673-22 your ward number or 673-2100. So everyone, please, please call and demand that discrimination and the "concentration of supportive housing" and containment zones end, so that Jim Mork does not have to pay his tax dollars for Federal Lawsuits. Who knows? If enough call it might work! Instead of attacking Vicki Heller about her lack of "economic understanding", perhaps Mr. Mork should examine where HIS City discriminates. It costs our City much more than just the few dollars it may cost our City. Its cost is in lost lives! It also costs the quality of life for ALL our City's residents. Instead of complaining because some people don't like standing in the mud next to the fortress neighborhoods wall, Mr. Mork (and all of us) should be advocating breaking down those walls. Breaking down those walls so that ALL of Minneapolis' people could enjoy the bright sunshine. Instead of hunkering underneath our own little neighborhood tarp with a flashlight, proud that our family can afford batteries, how about if we ALL welcome that bright sunshine to Minneapolis. Minneapolis' own Hubert Humphrey challenged the nation to do so in that 1947 speech. Fifty-five years later we should be demanding that our own "Democratic" politicians finally make it happen in Minneapolis. Jim Graham, Ventura Village > "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr. REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! 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