News Bitter on Yom Kippur
posted by on October 2 at 9:36 AM
Last year at this time, the Monorail agency was slammed for holding a board meeting on Yom Kippur.
From the 10/16/05 PI:
Clueless in Seattle: In a disastrous summer interview with labor leaders, monorail board member Cindi Laws remarked that Jews had given money to the anti-monorail campaign and that opponent Beth Goldberg was Jewish and hence likely to get ample funding.Profuse apologies followed. But this week, the Seattle Monorail Project put off by two days a board meeting slated for Tuesday night. It was rescheduled for Thursday, which happens to be Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and holiest day of the Jewish year.
“It shows a cultural insensitivity that a public body should not exhibit. You just don’t do it,” Robert Jacobs, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote to the board.
Is anyone throwing a fit this year about all the public meetings that are happening on Yom Kippur? That’s today. There are four city council hearings today, for example.
Look, I’m a Jew, and I’m not going to go out and torch a building over this. In fact, I think it’s totally fine for the government to hold meetings on Yom Kippur.
But it just reminds me how ridiculous the double standard was on the monorail.
Anyway, Happy Day of Atonement Mayor Gridlock. I just love that tunnel. I’m glad you’re going to the mat for it. Way to stand up for important transportation needs—even when the project is in financial trouble! Cars are important after all.
How 'bout a compromise? Mayor Gridlock can hold meetings on Yom Kippur, but cannot engage in Pork?
Keep in mind that Josh and Shohanna should both be in shul all day. This is a perfect time to indulge in some Israel criticism or to suggest that we may be losing the war in Iraq.
Jews won't wear leather shoes or drive their cars today because god tells them to. Christians won't let teenagers take birth control.
All religion is for idiots.
Help me keep track here...you are tying
A)...the holding of a meeting on a Jewish Holy Day....
B)...to the agency (SMP) that held it...
C)...to the Mayor...
D) ...who pulled support for it....
E) AFTER THEY BLEW THE PROJECT TO PIECES AND ALL HE DID WAS SAY THAT WE SHOULD VOTE ON THE CARCASS!!!
I am just a simple man from Lacey, but it sounds like a stretch.
Josh I thought you were'nt even religious?!?
Religious holidays like Christmas make me sick. Yom Kippur is "holy" to Jews? Why aren't there stupid South Park episodes about this nonsense about not wearing leather shoes today? If we could make fun of Yom Kippur like we make fun of Easter maybe the Jews will get over themselves and religion.
America would be better if it was totally secular. Ridiculing Yom Kippur would be a good start. Lots of people work on Christmas, so Jews should be forced to work on Yom Kippur.
What's up with all the idiots commenting today? Was it the sports posting over the weekend?
Generally, I comment every day.
Every day is a high holy day for me.
Why aren't any public meetings held in the open at parks? From my religious beliefs, this is essential.
So, we can see - one rule for one group, but no acknowledgement of others.
This wouldn't happen in New York.
Get over it. The monorail was never going to work as you single-track minded proponents imagined it. We can't even keep our mile-long one running. The only rational that makes any sense for the Monorail in Seattle is the mindset of Seattle exceptionalism. Sure, it's not really worked anywhere else on the planet, except maybe Japan (and boy is that debateable), but we're so special and different than anywhere else on the planet, it must work for us, because, well--we're so special. The Monorail concept was broken from its inception, its costs ballooned out of control even more than Sound Transit's did, and its funding formulal was based on faulty--on might even say "sexed up" assumptions. It would have made Bush's war in Iraq seem well thought out. Let's MOVE ON and find better non-auto based transportation alternatives.
Call me stuck in the past, Sail, but your argument stikes me as totally wrongheaded. I won't defend the management at SMP, but if we can afford a waterfront tunnel, we could have afforded to kick in a few hundred mil to put a larger downpayment on a capital investment adding functionality instead of moving traffic underground for a mile.
Seattle Monorail:
Voters Told: 1.75 billion (Ballard - WS)
Actual: 2.1 billion (Ballard - WS)
Overrun: 350 million,
Sound Transit Central Link:
Voters Told: 1.67 billion (UW-Seatac)
Actual: 2.3 (Westlake - Seatac)
PLUS $1.7 to get to the UW (Projected)
Overrun: 2.3 billion,
Iraq War:
Voters Told: Oil = Pays for itself
Actual: 330 billion +
Overrun: Infinite.
Sail,
What works best in Seattle is dithering & delay.
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