Observer » Catholic League

Parts of New York Not Called the Empire State Building Are Celebrating Mother Teresa Right Now

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:41:15 -0400

Happy birthday, Mother Teresa! If you were alive, you would be 100 years old—not that anyone's counting. In fact, instead of talking about how you spent your life helping people in India, everyone is busy either celebrating you or protesting the fact that you're not being celebrated. Right now, there's a rally organized by the Catholic League being held at the base of the Empire State Building to protest building owner Anthony Malkin's decision to reject the league's request for blue and white lights in your honor! Instead, tonight Mr. Malkin is illuminating his prime piece of real estate in a red, white and blue lighting scheme to honor Women's Equality Day. Since the Catholic League's proposal failed, the group has amassed a petition that is 40,000 signatures strong decrying the lack of your favorite colors on New York's tallest skyscraper. The League's birthday bash will feature speakers from within the organization, the State Senate, the City Council, and elsewhere.

You'd love it.

Besides, we have other buildings and stuff. Times Square, the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum and Borough Hall will be draped in blue and white. There was a Mass earlier today for you at St. Patrick's (you probably know that?). And City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has asked New Yorkers to place battery-operated blue and white candles in their windows. So there's that, too.

Why exactly did Mr. Malkin refuse to light up his historic skyscraper on your behalf? His response to the debate came in a press release: "As a privately owned building, ESB has a specific policy against any other lighting for religious figures or requests by religions and religious organizations." There is no such prohibition involving smokin' hot pop songstresses, such as Mariah Carey in 2008. Perhaps Mr. Malkin places himself in the same camp as Christopher Hitchens, the guy who in 2003 announced in his typically bombastic style that you were a "fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud." Zing!

For New Yorkers wanting to celebrate your birthday, there are two major options then: bask in blue and white in Times Square or Borough Hall, or release some anger protesting at the lack of blue and white at the Empire State Building. Choices, choices...

Catholic League President: Empire State Building Owners ‘Bigots’

Dana Rubinstein — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:00:28 -0400

The president of the Catholic League, Bill Donahue, has called the Empire State Building operators who declined his request to light the building in honor of Mother Teresa "bigots."

According to the Associated Press:

His advocacy group requested the illumination on Aug. 26 for the centennial of the late Nobel Peace Prize winner's birth.

Donohue said the request was denied without explanation.

Now, the City Council is getting involved. Queens Democrat Peter Vallone told the Daily News that "I worked behind the scenes for about a week, but when nothing came of it, I decided to go public."

Mr. Vallone expects his colleagues to join him in demanding that the Malkin family, which owns the tower, light it blue and white when the would-be 100th birthday arrives.

drubinstein@observer.com

Conservative Jewish Paper Pans Obama for Not Being Like Hagee

Azi Paybarah — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:11:06 -0400

Here's a critical piece from the hawkish Jewish Press about Barack Obama that actually won't be all bad for him: It pans him for not being like George W. Bush and McCain-rejected Rev. John Hagee. It's evidence, if nothing else, that the narrative about unease with him in the Jewish community is being embraced most enthusiastically by people who are inclined to despise his politics anyway.

In its editorial yesterday, the paper offered a staunch defense of Reverend Hagee (who once said in a sermon that the Holocaust happened "because God said, 'My top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the Land of Israel.'"), substantiating its praise of him with a quote from Catholic League president William Donahue (who once said that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular").

The piece also criticized Obama for criticizing President Bush.

From the piece:

One gets the feeling that Sen. Obama does not easily identify with Israel -- that he is a stranger to the warm feelings of support and solidarity for the Jewish state evinced by, say, a George W. Bush or a John Hagee.

[skip]

Sen. Obama has publicly vowed to reach out to our (and Israel’s) adversaries around the world and solicit their grievances about American foreign policy. Perhaps, he implies, they have a point. Indeed, he has speculated that Hamas leaders publicly hope for his election as president because they likely think the changes he would make include putting an end to President Bush’s “cowboy diplomacy.”

The more one looks at things, the more it seems that Israel could have a real problem with an Obama administration.