Allen did the right thing in declining a leadership award from the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund after their donors threatened to pull their contributions, but this plays right into the narrative of Sen. Allen vs. minorities. Anything that Allen says or does that pertains to race, religion, sex, or country or origin between now and November will be seen within the context of that narrative, and it will hurt him every time.
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I agree, but for different reasons. Obviously, Allen’s action was taken to protect the organization and its good works, notwithstanding the behavior of professional race hustlers. It disproves their despicable charges of racism far more effectively than anything else he could have done. Not that those on the far Left will drop their ridiculous claims.
To be fair, it would have been far worse for his campaign had he gone forward with it. Then the story would be that the organization’s funders so dislike Sen. Allen that they’re withholding their money. That’s a much more damaging story than the path that he’s chosen, which is that he’s avoided a hypothetical problem of withheld contributions.
What makes this solution the best one is that both the organization and Allen avoid undue negative publicity. But Allen’s hardly taking a hit for his choice — it was simply the least-damaging solution.
I wonder if people and/or organizations that are “put off”, by the actions of those denying the organization from giving an award to whomever them deem worthy, will also with hold donations to the fund?
One group of people turns this into a “lose – lose” situation. But a lot of “chests get thumped”… Look what “we did”…
To me, the real question is —
“On what planet, in what universe, did George Allen’s name and Thurgood Marshall’s name seem like they went together?”
God knows it was not for his historic support for the causes to which Thurgood Marshall dedicated his life’s work.
What sort of cynicism on the part of the Scholarship Fund went into the suggestion that he receive their award in the first place?
I mean, damn.
Where is this ‘far left’ people are speaking about? Is anyone left of center (determined by the GOP) to be labeled ‘far left’?
I consider myself left, but since the center keeps moving to the right at near-light speed, it is hard to keep up with what the honorable opposition considers the ‘center’ or the ‘left’ for that matter.
By the way, this is not the same award people think it is. This is a lesser known award that anyone, including Allen’s staff or friends could have nominated him for. When I first saw the story, I thought it was about all the posturing Allen has done in the last eighteen months with his ‘apology’ for slavery, and his ‘apology’ for lynching. His appearance earlier this summer in Farmville with Rep. John Lewis, a true Civil Rights leader, caused local unrest and had me scratching my head. The publisher of the Farmville Herald, Ken Woodley, won an award for pushing the Prince Edward Scholarships for the classes of students that were deprived of their education during ‘massive resistance’. He also won for his public dialogue on race relations.
I wonder what Mr. Woodley thinks of Senator Allen now.