...is there one in every crowd including the House of Representatives?

There are 435 members of the United States House of Representatives. Most are white. Most are male. Most are just your garden-variety pols; lawyers, former state representatives, attorneys general, school board presidents, whatever. Most want to a good job representing the folks back home. A few are morons, which brings us to the the honorable gentleman from Rocky Mount, Virginia, Virgil H. Goode Jr.

It seems that Mr. Goode wishes to take exception to the fact that another Representative, Keith Ellison, has beliefs different from his own. Rep. Ellison (D-Minn.) has expressed a desire to repeat his induction to the House of Representatives by swearing on the Koran. House members do not swear on any book at the official ceremony; they just raise their right hand.

Mr. Goode has attacked Rep. Ellison's preference for the Muslim holy book and advised his constituents that he disapproves. In addition Mr. Goode has embraced this issue as proof that America and American values are being co-opted by foreigners. His statement demands that we..."stop illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration" lest we be overrun by, "persons from the Middle East".

Well thank God for stand-up guys like Virgil. (Is there a law that if your name is Virgil you must be from the south?) There are only a few problems with Brother Goode's comments. First, Keith Ellison is from Detroit and, unless I missed something in Time magazine recently, Detroit is still in the USA. Second, Mr. Ellison is a Muslim and he was elected with the full knowledge of his constituents. For him to take the oath of office on any other book would be foolish and probably contrary to his beliefs. Would Rep. Goode object if a Jew swore the oath on the Torah?

I suppose that this obnoxious rant could have been worse. Mr. Goode could have accused Rep. Ellison of helping with the attack on 9-11. He might have suggested that, having failed to defeat "them" over there, we must now confront them here. However the most troubling part of this is that the Virginia district that includes UVA, thought that this mope should represent them in Washington. Was David Duke tied up?

There are between 1.5 and 6 million Muslims in the US. (Accurate numbers are difficult to come by because mosques don't take attendance or record membership.) That represents about .5% to 1.5% of the American population. Of this group only about 25% are Arabs. 33% are African-Americans. (Considering how helpful traditional Christianity has been to Black America you can understand the interest in seeking an alternative.) It is therefore unclear as to whether Rep. Goode intends to restrict Arab immigration, Muslim immigration or all immigration. How about we seal the borders, close off the ports and scrape that silly verse off the Statue of Liberty.

Let's face facts. Virgil H. Goode Jr. is an opportunistic bigot. Had he lived in 1906 his targets would have been "Negros and Jews". Unless "Goode" is an American Indian name, one suspects that, at some point, his family were immigrants. Hopefully they were welcomed with more charity than Virge is extending to today's new Americans. Do us all a favor Virgil... don't reproduce. With any luck, your brand of "Americanism" will die with you.