Chuck Bennett is the Mayor of Salem, Oregon. Cherie is his wife. Below is a You Tube video of a portion of a video someone sent me of a slide presentation by the Bennetts about their trip to London.
In this part of the video Cherie Bennett speaks disparagingly of Muslims after noting the location of London terrorist attacks. I made a transcript of what she said.
Given the nature of the terror attacks, it was truly shocking to see huge ads on buses promoting Muslim organizations and issues, calling for support of Muslim charities. "For the love of Allah, support Islamic relief." TV ads featured Arabic writing. The number of women in head scarves and burkas had doubled from what we saw just two years earlier. Muslim presence was pervasive. At the same time, there were admonitions everywhere, in signs and announcements, to say something if you see something. The cognitive dissonance was unnerving.
It took me a while to decide whether what Cherie Bennett said was newsworthy. Or, blog post worthy. Obviously I decided that it was, for several reasons.
First, after the 9/11 attacks President George W. Bush made a point of saying that the United States wasn't at war with Muslims, but with Islamic terrorists. He correctly told the American people that most Muslims are peace-loving.
So to have Cherie Bennett basically lump together ordinary Muslims and Islamic terrorists is as disturbing now as it was back in 2001.
Also, in early 2017 the City Council declared that Salem is an Inclusive City. That resolution said, in part:
Whereas, Inclusion and integration of all residents of Salem is a vital concern for the general welfare of Salem in all respects;
Whereas, Discrimination based on national origin, race, ethnicity, or religion or perceived national origin is a chronic aspect of life for immigrant and refugee populations of Oregon;
Whereas, Chronic discrimination leads to community disengagement, diminished opportunities for integration, increased stigmatization, greater incidents of health morbidity;
In the video above you can hear Mayor Bennett speaking right after his wife finishes her anti-Muslim remarks. He doesn't correct her, or say that her views about Muslims don't reflect his own. Maybe because he agrees with her. Maybe because he didn't see a need to comment on her remarks.
Regardless, the Mayor of Salem isn't on duty only when at City Hall. As a city leader, people look to the Mayor to embody the values of the City of Salem. Cherie Bennett's remarks are at odds with those values.
Look, I understand that what Cherie Bennett said is in the mainstream of conservative politics in these Trumpist days. Her remarks would be applause lines in right-wing circles. But Salem is a liberal-leaning town. Our City Council passed an Inclusive City resolution.
Which met with some criticism from Mayor Bennett and other conservative council members, as I noted in a February 2017 blog post.
The conservative councilors, including Mayor Bennett, mostly used their discussion time to emphasize that an Inclusive City designation just reiterated current City of Salem and State of Oregon policies about immigration issues. True, but they failed to appreciate how much the resolution meant to people-at-risk in these Trumpian times.
...The conservative city councilors -- Mayor Bennett, Brad Nanke, Jim Lewis, Steve McCoid -- pretty clearly were boxed-in by the overwhelming citizen support for Salem becoming an Inclusive City. As noted above, mostly their comments were along the lines of "This doesn't change existing City policies, but I'll vote for it anyway."
I didn't hear much compassion and emotion in their words, in contrast to how Andersen, Kaser, and Sally Cook spoke about the resolution (the fourth progressive city councilor, Matt Ausec, didn't say much, as is his style).
Lastly, recently The Seattle Times had a story about a prosecutor in Washington whose wife made racist remarks. While what Cherie Bennett said wasn't nearly as bad, this shows that a wife's views can affect the reputation of her husband who holds a public office.
Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell has officially apologized and attempted to distance himself from his wife’s racist rants on social media, but defense attorneys, experts in legal ethics and civil libertarians think his office and reputation are damaged, maybe beyond repair.
Lesley Haskell, 57, has found herself in the eye of a hurricane-force storm of controversy after the Inlander alternative newspaper in Spokane published a story on Jan. 27 excerpting a string of posts on the conservative social media site Gab.com in which she freely used slurs referring to Blacks, Jews, Latinos and other ethnic groups — defending those statements as “free speech.” She had declared herself a “proud white nationalist” and held up the Ku Klux Klan as a beacon of “white culture.”
...In a private memorandum shared with attorneys in his office and obtained by The Seattle Times, Haskell said, “I very much love my wife and want her to freely express herself; however, at times, we do not share or express the same thoughts.”
William S. Bailey, a professor from practice at the University of Washington Law School, notes that while Haskell’s statement appears “thoughtful, honest and sincere,” it does little to lift the taint of his wife’s words.
“This is a very interesting situation, somewhat unprecedented,” said Bailey. “There is no question that, at a minimum, this creates a fundamental appearance of fairness issue.
“I do know that if I was a member of a minority group, his wife’s comments would be transferred to Mr. Haskell, notwithstanding his comments to the contrary,” he said. “There is just too much bad history to ignore.
“There is no doubt in my mind that if Larry Haskell was a judge and this information about his wife came out, he would have to recuse himself from any case if asked to do so by an attorney for a party,” Bailey said.
You have no idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwoSemuBDpc&t=2s
Posted by: TENDZIN | February 17, 2022 at 09:28 PM
Pro Muslim bus advertising may have started in Chicago, not London. https://youtu.be/N05a4ooy1Cw
Posted by: Geoffrey James | February 20, 2022 at 10:51 AM