Fortunately, Bill DeSteph Doesn’t Speak For Anyone But Himself

I couldn’t agree more with Vivian on this one.

Virginia Beach Councilman Bill DeSteph sent a letter to the mayor and council members of New York, protesting the location of a proposed community center. The letter was wrong on so many levels, including the fact that he used official city letterhead and failed to discuss it with fellow council members.

But that wasn’t the part that got me. After all, I don’t live in Virginia Beach. No, what got me was that he made it sound as if he were not only representing Virginia Beach but all of Virginia.

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Um, Bill – I don’t recall anyone casting a vote for you to represent the Commonwealth. Your name wasn’t on the ballot last November. Don’t we have at least three spokesmen for the Commonwealth whose names were on that ballot? Did you consult any of them before penning this missive?

Other than falsely speaking for all of us, DeSteph also gets the basic facts of this situation all wrong, as Vivian correctly points out.  For instance, DeSteph charges in this ignorant tirade/rant that “Muslems build mosques to represent Islamic supremacy over their enemy.”

First of all, it’s spelled “Muslims” not “Muslems.” Moron. Second, Muslims build mosques for the same reason that Jews build synagogues and Christians build churches – to pray in! Third, if DeSteph really wants to criticize Muslims for building their houses of worship over churches and synagogues — which he certainly does in his ignorant tirade/rant — he really might want to check out Spain, where untold numbers of former mosques are now churches. He might also want to check out Cusco, Peru, where churches are built over Incan sanctuaries and even one of its most sacred temples, the Coricancha. The fact is, every religion and every culture does this – Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, you name it. Fourth, as Vivian points out, “it’s not at Ground Zero, but on property two blocks north that the group already owns.” So much for conservatives respecting private property, at least in Bill DeSteph’s world. Fortunately, DeSteph doesn’t speak for anyone but himself, even if he thinks he does.