Grandstanding politics at its worst

As administrator of the Flathead Area Secular Humanist Association, it was with great interest that I read (Nov. 19) about the Whitefish City Council’s hearing a proposal about writing an ordinance that would make Whitefish a “no-hate” community — by creating “a caring, open, accepting and diverse community free from discrimination and dedicated to the equal treatment of all citizens,” one proponent was quoted as saying.

Non-discrimination is an important local issue for FASHA. A study done by the University of Minnesota in 2006 found that atheists are the least-trusted minority in America.

For example, according to a story about the survey by ABC News, “Asked whether they would disapprove of a child’s wish to marry an atheist, 47.6 percent of those interviewed said yes.

Asked the same question about Muslims and African-Americans, the yes responses fell to 33.5 percent and 27.2 percent, respectively. The yes responses for Asian-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and conservative Christians were 18.5 percent, 18.5 percent, 11.8 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.”

Further, the story says, “When asked which groups did not share their vision of American society, 39.5 percent of those interviewed mentioned atheists” — who again topped the list of social pariahs.

FASHA comprises atheists, secular humanists, agnostics, naturalists, skeptics and various other freethinkers — all of whom suffer regular discrimination and unwarranted social pressure in the workplace, at schools and at other venues and situations across the county. So some type of anti-discrimination ordinance would seem to be in order.

However, I also realize that such laws do impinge on basic constitutional and human rights — freedom of speech, expression and association, to name a few. And some of the proposals mentioned in the Pilot report seemed to go off the deep end in this regard.

So I went to the Whitefish City Council’s website to listen to a recording of that meeting, and it took all of 31 seconds of audio to determine that the Whitefish City Council is clueless about discrimination.

The meeting opened with recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words “under God.” This makes we wonder how a resident alien or foreign visitor with business before the council would be treated when he or she refused to pledge allegiance to another country’s flag. Or how someone sworn not to worship false idols (such as a Jehovah’s Witness) would be regarded after not reciting the loyalty oath. Or how someone who refused to be coerced into saying “under God” would be looked upon.

The facts are these: Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before a public meeting — and especially including the words “under God” — nurtures an in-group/out-group mentality and the discriminatory environment that goes with it. A government body that discriminates against a significant segment of its community clearly is not qualified to consider “no-hate” legislation.

And when you dig through the crust of insincere platitudes and histrionics, on Nov. 17 the Whitefish City Council unanimously practiced manipulative, grandstanding politics at its worst.

— Richard E. Wackrow is the administrator of the Flathead Area Secular Humanist Association