Badlands Journal

7-22-09

Merced Sun-Star

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/177/story/963037.html

Letter: Patience is needed

Editor: Gary Frago made a mistake. He has admitted it and has apologized for it. Like others, I was surprised and disappointed. From serious eye-opening experiences like this, humble people can learn and grow from them.

Give Gary Frago a chance to address the issue from all angles, spiritual included. Elections are the time to select our City Council persons.

FATHER TOM TIMMINGS

 

The Merced Sun-Star used a secular tool, the California  Public Records Act Request, and a little legal wrangling, to squeeze a few racist emails out of Atwater City Hall, channeled to and from a racist cult by Councilman Gary Frago. Having had to use the statute to get information from local governments for many years, we understand how difficult it is to get public records from public officials.

Today, the Catholic Church got involved with the letter above, and lied. Frago was finally forced to perform a public apology. His original retort was not apologetic:

In all, the Sun-Star obtained seven e-mails that Frago sent from October 2008 to February 2009 from an anonymous source.

 Some compared Obama to O.J. Simpson while others suggested that "nigger rigs" should now be called "presidential solutions."

Perhaps the most overboard e-mail was sent on Jan. 15. It read: "Breaking News Playboy just offered Sarah Palin $1 million to pose nude in the January issue. Michelle Obama got the same offer from National Geographic."

Frago admitted sending the e-mails, but showed no regret. "If they're from me, then I sent them," he said. "I have no disrespect for the president or anybody, they weren't meant in any bad way or harm…– Merced Sun-Star, July 17, 2009

Five days later, Frago issued his “apology” for getting caught by the newspaper:

"I made a mistake," he said of the seven e-mails, circulated from October to February. "It was a mistake I shouldn't have made and I apologize for it. I wasn't being racist, I was just passing on e-mails…"I didn't think it would go nationwide, to tell you the truth. If it would have stayed local, we would have been able to handle it a lot easier," he (Frago)said.   – Merced Sun-Star, July 21, 2009.

You’d have thought from this “apology” that Frago had missed a putt that cost him and his partners some money.

Perhaps Frago was stirred by another nearby prelate, Father Illo of Modesto, who vented shortly after the presidential election:

The Rev. Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto, has told parishioners in a homily and in a follow-up letter that if they voted for Barack Obama, they should consider going to confession because of the president-elect's abortion-rights position.

"If you are one of the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate, you were clear on his position and you knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving communion. Don't risk losing your state of grace by receiving sacrilegiously," Illo wrote in a letter dated Nov. 21.

The letter was sent to more than 15,000 members of the St. Joseph's parish. It is one of 34 parishes in the Stockton Diocese, which has more than 200,000 members in Stanislaus, San Joaquin and four other counties in California. – Santa Rosa Press Democrat,  Nov. 30, 2008.

The Bishop of the Stockton Diocese responded quickly:

The Most Rev. Stephen Blaire, bishop of the Stockton Diocese, disagrees with Illo. He said Catholics should not feel compelled to disclose how they voted to their priest.

Blaire said Catholics who carefully weighed many issues and settled on a candidate who supports abortion rights were not in need of confession. He said confession would be necessary only if a parishioner based the decision to vote for a candidate on his or her support for abortion rights.

"Our position on pro-life is very important, but there are other issues," Blaire said. "No one candidate reflects everything that we stand for. I'm sure that most Catholics who voted were voting on economic issues.

"There were probably many priests, and I suspect many bishops, who voted for Obama."

The article, by Sue Nowicki of McClatchy News Service, ends with a quote from the Vatican:

Cardinal Frank Stafford, formerly archbishop of Denver and now assigned to the Vatican, called Obama's election "apocalyptic" during a speech Nov. 14 at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

"On Nov. 4, 2008," he said, "America suffered a cultural earthquake."

Atwater City Manager Greg Wellman expressed the view that the Frago affair might produce positive cultural change in city government rather than a socially destructive earthquake of racism.

City Manager Greg Wellman, who received several e-mails from Frago, said that he hopes that Frago's apology will be the start of a new culture within city government. "Personally, I have been involved in reading material from all over the United States for the past two days," he said. "I would like to think that the apologies offered are a starting point in changing a culture." – Merced Sun-Star, July 21, 2009.

Atwater actually has something more solid to work with to change the culture of its local government than Frago’s apology or Father Timmings’ homily on civic patience. California Government Code Section 53235  deals with ethics training for members of local legislative bodies. It is enforced by both the state Attorney General and the state Fair Political Practices Commission. The city might request that Attorney General Jerry Brown, once a Jesuit seminarian, design a special, remedial ethics course for Frago, more thorough than the legally established minimum.

53235.  (a) If a local agency provides any type of compensation,

salary, or stipend to a member of a legislative body, or provides

reimbursement for actual and necessary expenses incurred by a member

of a legislative body in the performance of official duties, then all

local agency officials shall receive training in ethics pursuant to

this article.

   (b) Each local agency official shall receive at least two hours of

training in general ethics principles and ethics laws relevant to

his or her public service every two years.

   (c) If any entity develops curricula to satisfy the requirements

of this section, then the Fair Political Practices Commission and the

Attorney General shall be consulted regarding the sufficiency and

accuracy of any proposed course content. When reviewing any proposed

course content the Fair Political Practices Commission and the

Attorney General shall not preclude an entity from also including

local ethics policies in the curricula.

   (d) A local agency or an association of local agencies may offer

one or more training courses, or sets of self-study materials with

tests, to meet the requirements of this section. These courses may be

taken at home, in-person, or online.

   (e) All providers of training courses to meet the requirements of

this article shall provide participants with proof of participation

to meet the requirements of Section 53235.2.

   (f) A local agency shall provide information on training available

to meet the requirements of this article to its local officials at

least once annually.

53235.1.  (a) Each local agency official in local agency service as

of January 1, 2006, except for officials whose term of office ends

before January 9, 2007, shall receive the training required by

subdivision (a) of Section 53235 before January 1, 2007. Thereafter,

each local agency official shall receive the training required by

subdivision (a) of Section 53235 at least once every two years.

   (b) Each local agency official who commences service with a local

agency on or after January 1, 2006, shall receive the training

required by subdivision (a) of Section 53235 no later than one year

from the first day of service with the local agency. Thereafter, each

local agency official shall receive the training required by

subdivision (a) of Section 53235 at least once every two years.

   (c) A local agency official who serves more than one local agency

shall satisfy the requirements of this article once every two years

without regard to the number of local agencies with which he or she

serves.

53235.2.  (a) A local agency that requires its local agency

officials to complete the ethical training prescribed by this article

shall maintain records indicating both of the following:

   (1) The dates that local officials satisfied the requirements of

this article.

   (2) The entity that provided the training.

   (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a local agency

shall maintain these records for at least five years after local

officials receive the training. These records are public records

subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act

(Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title

1).

Father Timmings’ public, pastoral compassion for a member of his parish notwithstanding, Atwater is not a church.

There are reasons to be critical of President Obama. He bailed out the banks, not the citizens. He appears to be selling “health-care reform” to the health-care insurance agencies. He is a warmonger. The color of his skin is not a reason to be critical of him.