Whirled Views with Dan Burrell

If you aren’t from Charlotte, you probably won’t be interested in these items, but I’m going to vent a little bit….

First, I am outraged at the way Bill James was treated at this week’s County Commission Meeting. You can look at my previous post to get my thoughts on some of his less-than-eloquent comments regarding the plight of moral standards in the inner city black community of Charlotte, but some of those who attacked him and his family at this largely ceremonial event only served to reinforce the stereotypes of which they claim to be offended. Here’s Bill’s own words to me regarding what his family endured on Monday night…

“I believe that God expects us to at least try and fix the problems around us. During the swearing in last night it was a sorry sad show. The room was filled with NAACP folks. They clapped for the Democrats sort of twittered and mumbled about the Republicans.

God is in a battle and either we as Christians are on the front lines or we are not. I volunteered for the duty so I can’t complain but my family did not.”

Now some might say that Bill should expect some abuse for his occasionally inflammatory way of communicating, but reducing his wife and children to tears is just wrong. All of us in the public limelight experience this from time to time. I’ve gotten lambasted more than once by homosexual groups, liberals and even so-called Christian church members (sometimes the meanest of all) and any leader knows that it comes with the turf. It’s just sad to see this move beyond a clash of ideas and ideals and become so personal.

Interestingly, some of my black friends and fellow pastors have privately expressed to me that Bill was on the mark in terms of calling attention to the breakdown of African-American families and communities due to rampant immorality. (Though all of us wish that he’d find ways to bring the problems up with more tact.)

The STUPIDEST comments were made by the new chair of the Meck County Commission, Parks Helms who said the reason the problems were so significant in Charlotte’s black urban community was due to poverty, not morality. He insinuated that if they just had more money crime would go down and intact families would go up. Really, Parks? Can anyone say “Knee-Jerk Liberal?”

If its a money problem then please explain Kobe Bryant, Sprewell, O.J., Tyson and the Pistons to me. It’s not about race! As MLK said, “Its about the content of the character, not the color of the skin.” Any community, regardless of its racial or socio-economic demographics, that has huge illigitimacy rates, divorce rates and crime rates has a CHARACTER problem and to ignore that is to damn the members of that community to a hopeless subculture of failure and misery.

Speaking of stupid politicians, how desperate was the black congressional caucus that they had to elect Mel Watt (my congressman) to be the head of their group. Watt is one of the most extremist liberal politicians in Washington, not to mention inarticulate and ineffective. His horrifically gerrymandered district was carved out simply to make a black seat for the NC delegation and he’s the worst person I’ve seen in our district to hold that position. (This guy even voted against legislation that made it illegal to murder infants who are born alive.) There are multiple fine black leaders in the congress (and who live in our district) that would serve with far more distinction and credibility in both congress and the caucus than Mel Watt.

Now to move off politics…

If you haven’t taken the kids down to the ice skating rink near the convention center, you should. It’s a cool little rink and could be a lot of fun. I’m waiting for the cold fronts to come in before we go, but its on my agenda. It reminds me of the rinks in big cities and while it won’t rival the ones in New York or Chicago, it’s still a neat addition to our city.

BTW, if you like seafood, Harbor Inn Seafood just off W.T. Harris near Old Concord Road is the best seafood for the best price I’ve seen in this area. You’ll really like it.

If you live in NC and haven’t done the “cut-your-own-Christmas-tree” thing, you should give it a try. We went last week-end and it was a nice day. I always gripe about it and something weird always happens to us each year, but it was beautiful weather, nice trees, family time and a great day trip. The best tree farms are near Boone and you can find where to go by putting Christmas Tree Farms North Carolina in a google search.

Well, that’s all for this blog…thanks for reading and for the feedback!