The Moscow City Council election is now over, and the results are in. Congratulations to Tom Lamar, the top vote getter, as well as to the other victors — Steed, Krauss, and Carscallen. Lamar is a genuine liberal, but he showed a lot of class in this election. In the aftermath of the bigotry kerfluffle, he came to see me to actually ask about it. We clearly inhabit different worlds, but he appears to be a liberal who wants to be a true liberal, and not what I call an intolerista. From the vote tallies, it is pretty clear that he received support from both sides of the current divide. And Steed, Krauss, and Carscallen all ran on a right-of-center, common sense approach, and congratulations to them as well. Given the options, the election could not have had a better outcome, and so our operative sensation here is one of relief, and gratitude to God.
The composition of the last city council, configured as it had been to harrass our people and eat out our substance, has now been completely overhauled. But the reason for the relief we all feel is not because we have a hidden agenda or lots of interfering plans for others — not at all. It is simple relief at the prospect of having our local government leave us alone. What a marvelous thought.
But there is another aspect of our local convulsions — I heard yesterday that the Food Coop has begun trying to say that the infamous boycott sheet was not being handed out at their cash registers, but rather was being set out on their tables outside. Sorry, but that won’t wash. The only reason we even found out about it is because it was handed to someone at the register just in front of someone from our church. And when someone else asked for one (at the register) in order to confirm this, he was told that they were out and to come back later.
I was happy to consider the matter closed on the basis of the reprimand of the employee involved. The Food Coop does have the responsibility to distance itself from this kind of bigotry. They don’t have the option of distancing themselves from what actually happened. But if they want, they can keep this issue alive for a lot longer than it would have been.
Back to the election: I would like to ask all our friends who were praying for us here to make a point of giving special thanks to God for the turn things have taken.