Standing Up to the Purveyors of Hate

Regular readers of this blog may recall that I have had very little good to say about Mayor Michael Bloomberg. I think that the way he rammed through a change of the term limits law so he could run for a third term, a law that won the approval of the voters in two separate referenda, was shameful. I thoroughly despise his demonization of guns, gun owners and gun stores.

But on the issue of building a mosque in New York City a few blocks from Ground Zero, he has stood up to the purveyors of hatred in his own party. He has made his stand clear in an eloquent speech that every thoughtful American should read.

Some may say that Mayor Bloomberg's speech is on a par with President Washington's 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport.

A line from Mayor Bloomberg's speech:

We may not always agree with every one of our neighbors. That's life and it's part of living in such a diverse and dense city. But we also recognize that part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance.

And from President Washington's letter:

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

If Newt Gingrich and the rest of his fellow purveyors of hatred and intolerace don't now shut the fuck up, they should be pelted with putrid produce every time they show their pustulent personae in public.