Loudoun Supervisor Ken “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) has issued another clarification to explain whose fault it was that he labeled as “terrorists” the people who object to having religious displays of two officially selected state-sponsored religions (guess which two!) on the Loudoun Courthouse grounds.
First “Ken” of course blamed the media (for accurately quoting him making an outrageous statement intended by him in the first place to get himself on television, his major pastime).
Then, when he got on television, he issued one of the standard politician’s “if I possibly offended anyone . . .” non-apology apologies, explaining that he did not think anyone would possibly think that by calling someone a “terrorist” he “meant to disparage anyone.”
Now he explains it’s all the Democrats’ fault for trying to exploit the issue and refusing to accept his “apology”; as he lucidly elaborated in an e-mail to the media (or what’s left of it around here):
“It’s regrettable … the Loudoun County Democratic Committee are unwilling to accept my apology for the use of the word in the Washington Times article and are choosing to use this incident to make political hay.”
This of course opens a great realm of possibilities for reasonable political dialogue. We can all start saying, “Ken Reid is a devil worshiping bunny murdering pervert,” and then insist that he not say anything about it so long as we “apologize” afterwards.
And speaking of reasonable dialogue — seriously — in an area where reasonable voices are rarely heard, there was an excellent, succinct, and extremely well put reply from the Reverend R. Don Prange of St. James United Church of Christ in Lovettsville in Leesburg Today this week about Reid’s support of the highly tasteful high-end marine grade PVC creche and baby Jesus display your government has chosen to erect at taxpayer expense:
According to Supervisor Reid, “none of the religious organizations in the county have had any problem with what we’re doing. It’s strictly this group of terrorists. They’re fanatics who basically want to stamp out religion in all public life and property.” As members of one of the “religious organizations” in Loudoun County, we do have a problem with the board choosing and endorsing religious symbols for display on the courthouse grounds, and we take great exception to the use of terms like “terrorists” and “fanatics” to describe people who oppose that policy. Reid seems to believe that this is a disagreement between all people of faith and atheists, when it’s actually a disagreement between defenders of church-state separation, whether people of faith or atheists, and certain Christians who feel that they have a special right to use public property.
Well said, Rev!
realloudoun 