Is Michael Davis, an avowed proponent of the convention center hotel, being overdramatic and unfair? Is Sam Merten being biased? Are pro-hotel forces abusing church-exempt status? You’ll have to read both Michael’s take on his blog, and Sam’s extensive coverage of the hotel issue at Unfair Park. Me? I think Sam is just doing his job. Nothing that calls for an all-points bulletin, or what could be seen as an incitement against the reporter. But I think we can all agree on one thing: Sam, you rock that mullet, man, and I swear you will one day make it back to the major leagues.
Is Dallas activist Domingo Garcia bringing good old Mexican-style conflict resolution to Dallas cases? Jason Trahan looks into it.
Want to see someone working on going to the special hell? Here she is.
Anne Raymond v. Mayor Leppert on the $550 million taxpayer owned convention center hotel. (Programming note: I’ll be returning to the pages of the Dallas Morning News in a few weeks after taking too long away for a column on the issue. My absence owes to juggling too many assignments.)
Quote of the Day: “The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn’t require any.” – Russell Baker
Sam is doing his job. The job that the Metro desk at the DMN won’t do.
POSTED on Dallas Progress earlier today:
As a semi–sorta-quasi white guy who has spent most of his life attending otherwise ‘black’ churches (eat your heart out; I actually saw the verrrry young MLK in a tent in the State-Thomas (then black) area.
First, I am not altogether comfortable lumping the ‘black churches’ together as though they are a monolithic pillar. Too, as I have been at any so-called ‘mega churches’ black and other, I have found it disturbing how the overtly partisan issues have become more frequently and openly preached from the pulpit.
The ‘black churches’ have always been the origin and center of political gravity in American African-American culture. But there has become in churches everywhere…and certainly religious programming on-the air with Daystar and CBN etc….a blurring of the line that is no longer at all politically subtle. Many times, in fact, when I attend churches anywhere, I feel like I am at some point at a political event.
It is in the best interest of all religious institutions to curtail being blatant about political issues and voting directives because it is quite risky from the standpoint of tax-exempt status. And I say that as a longtime follower of the culture and the faith. There are lines being routinely crossed that are an accident waiting to happen ultimately before the Supreme Court that might re-define the role of churches in general and tax-exempt status of church-owned properties.
I sure hope the “Creepy Guys in the Park” tag wasn’t directed at me.
And, for the record, it wasn’t a mullet.