Essay 363

Opening arguments with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The Minuteman Project is now suing for being dissed as potential participants in a Laguna Beach parade (see Essay 357). Parade officials had originally rejected the group, citing rules prohibiting political and religious entrants. The Minuteman Project wants to march and is demanding $25,000 in damages for the exclusion, plus legal fees. The courts should allow the group to participate, but order them to build their parade float employing undocumented workers.

• Four ex-Walgreen pharmacists are suing the company, claiming they were illegally fired for refusing to comply with the organization’s birth control policy when they denied certain contraceptive medication to customers. A new state rule demands that pharmacies sell federally approved contraceptives “without delay” if the items are in stock. The pharmacists and their lawyers disagree. “It couldn’t be any clearer,” said counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a Pat Robertson public-interest group. “In punishing these pharmacists for asserting a right protected by the Conscience Act, Walgreens broke the law.” Wonder how the pharmacists responded to filling Viagra prescriptions.

• NBA great and New York Knicks GM Isiah Thomas is being sued for sexual harassment by an ex-Knicks employee. The ex-employee claims Thomas made sexual advances and verbally harassed her too. “First of all, I never ever made any sexual advances towards [the woman], nor am I in love with [her], nor did I ever tell her I was in love with her. Nor did I ever invite her to any off-site premises to have sex with her,” Thomas said. Gee, it sounds like Thomas is being counseled by Bill Clinton.

• Jesse Jackson was cleared of any wrongdoing in a lawsuit that claimed the civil rights leader threatened another minister (see Essay 349). However, the jury split over related assault charges against Jesse Jackson’s son, Jonathan. A lawyer for the Jacksons will ask the judge to decide if my minister’s kid can beat up your minister.

• That’s no terrorist — that’s my wife. New reports show at least two incidents where the U.S. Army seized and imprisoned the wives of alleged insurgents in Iraq, using the women to try to get their husbands to surrender. One wife had three kids, including a nursing six-month-old. All’s fair in love and war — and the two are no longer mutually exclusive.