Dan Popkey raises the dead

I read today's column by Dan regarding the Keep the Commandments leaders in Boise and the fine they paid.

His column simply misses the mark....it doesn't work. It paid too much attention to the issue.

Recently, I blogged on the issue, myself, and wrote from a position of having been arrested in that case. My bottom line was that until the Supreme Court makes their decision, the issue is dead...so quit bringing it back to life.

And Dan brings it back to life...AGAIN...agghh!

Then he beats them to death...again.

It's the Night of the Living Dead, again and again. "More brains....."

The good thing about the piece is his last paragraph. He's apparently made a decision to focus on more centrist characters in our community. I think that's a good idea. 

I've long ago learned that the edges of a painting do not a landscape painting make...so quit focusing on them.

But that's just me...
Den

Comments

[Mindi Wilhelm]

Dennis, the city could have put an end to all of this chatter if they had simply lined us up and shot us at the Monument instead of arresting us. Dead people don't rack up fines or call press conferences or organize campaigns or write blogs or help addicts or fast and pray for weeks or get sentenced to community service. I don't know about my fellow arrestables, but I would gladly have put my life on the line for the Word of God, and for the freedom of speech. It seems the city missed the real opportunity to put the kibosh on us. Since our blood is not crying from the ground, we are obligated to continue to speak up. I hope my disagreeing with you does not end our friendship. I value your influence in this community.

[Dennis Mansfield]

Mindi, no prob on holding differing points of view. Heck, I could be all wrong. Plus, I respect you.

My call, however, is that Bryan and Brandi should have paid their fine(s) long ago.You and I did our public service and exited out of the appeal. Others moved forward with the appeal. All lost. All performed their public service, to the best of my knowedge. (It's a shame Bryan wasn't arrested with us, though. I still find his absence odd.)

Their failure to pay the fines simply needed to be fixed. The WAY in which they paid it, however, harkened us all back to the days of huge press deals and loud "stuff".

I've come to the point that loud "stuff" doesn't work. I believe that Dan Popkey's apparently new direction of focusing on centrist people and centrist concerns helps the whole community in dialog...not the monologs that have been so a part of this disagreement in public policy.

Den

[Mindi Wilhelm]

Thanks, Dennis.

You are right. Grandstanding does not work, and it stirs up a lot of bad sentiment. The thing that is supposed to set us apart at Christians are the quiet good works that change individual lives and transform communities. Occasionally, however, someone needs to stand up and say something.

Fischer and Swindell tried to stop the unlawful removal of the monument by going through the courts, and got burned. I don't have a problem with soliciting the community to help pay for it. It looks like people enjoyed giving to the cause.

I find the absence of all of the pastors in our community from those arrested to be odd. That is not an accusation of them, simply an observation. Bryan was unique in that he was willing to be involved with us at all, not that he was not arrested.