Virginia “Brock Landers” Korte put out yet another anonymous Voice of Scottsdale editorial yesterday to bash the city council members who didn’t support her amateurish efforts to ramrod an LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance.
In that column, Korte accuses those opponents of ‘playing politics,’ and pandering to right wing nut job constituents. She says,
Scottsdale is supposed to be special – a city in which the political process is transparent and our leaders listen. Citizens’ input isn’t just invited … it matters. Or at least it has until last week when a majority of the City Council chose to ignore it – including input from the business community.
If you never attended a city council meeting, you too might believe that your input matters to city government. My 15 years of experience has shown me quite the opposite. And Korte knows better. She’s quite adept at the art of the left-handed stab, and has been practicing it for years. She’s probably the best one of all of them because she can smile and shake your hand with her right at the same time she’s wielding the knife with her left.
In her column yesterday, Korte cites:
A formal statement issued by the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce said: “Increasingly, businesses seeking relocation to communities apply ‘litmus tests’ to those moves, among which for many would be the tangible and enforceable application of fully inclusive policies. For many of those businesses, the affirmative statement of an anti-discrimination ordinance would be a factor in future decisions, and a decision not to have such an ordinance could have deleterious consequences in business attraction and retention efforts.”
As I pointed out yesterday, there is no such “litmus test” for membership in the Chamber, of which Korte was once president and within which she still has considerable influence.
On a tangential note, Korte claims that “the Chamber of Commerce represents more than 1,000 members.” I believe that’s an outright fabrication…with the real number of members in the 300 range. But you and I, the citizens, will never know. You see the Chamber closely guards their membership roster in order to shield the members from, for example, having to be liable for campaign finance violations. Political campaign finance violations.
And in fact, the Chamber as we know it today, moved out of city-owned facilities and stopped receiving city funding in 1991, for the express purpose of being more political.
It is worth noting that in her Voice of Scottsdale columns, Korte has never criticized long-time ally Suzanne Klapp, even though Klapp voted against the LGBT ordinance. Politics?
It is also worth noting that in the 2012 election cycle the Chamber endorsed both Klapp and Mayor Jim Lane, who has a long history of opposing LGBT protections.
I repeat what I said yesterday. Korte is using the LGBT issue for her own political gain.
6 Comments
Will you share the link to the Korte column?
Andy, my apologies, I missed your comment until just now. I just posted the entire Korte column: http://www.scottsdaletrails.com/2015/04/24/korte-on-lgbt/
Is this the same Korte who works with that guy with the silver hair who is always escorting that Scottsdale Gateway Alliance lady to political events and SUSD meetings? Isn’t that Council person the close friend of Judy Eisenhower (Ike must be spinning in his grave cause that person is attached to all those dark money fund) and isn’t she a friend of that attorney, William Lally, who signed those Scottsdale United forms he City Clerk has to have from people raising funds for candidates? Isn’t he also the statutory agent for Scottsdale Gateway Alliance?
Yep, me again. Got a couple of questions about that “transparency” thing. This Council uses that a lot. But wasn’t it Mayor Lane who kept not only the public, but his fellow Council members out of his meetings with the Downtown bar owners and managers?
Another question, if we are going to oppose discrimination then why not include economic, religious, age and culture in the same document? It would be the right thing to do to wipe it all out, just thinking.
Korte is trying to legislate human behavior. Korte either has forgotten history – please look up: Brown v. Board of Education, prohibition, the ‘Red scare’, and countless other examples OR this is just more political BS. You can NOT change people via legislation. If LGBT rights are her desire, then she needs to do something about that. Attacking others does nothing for LGBT rights. Working on education about those rights or lack thereof should be her message.
With or without legislation, is there going to be discrimination? YES! We, the people of the United States, have laws on the books that state you cannot discriminate. YET it still happens! So the laws have done what? There is less hate now? There is less discrimination, right? Oh wait, the law made all those people suddenly obey a law? That is LUNACY! You will NEVER legislate human behavior. The best you can hope for is that educating people will start or accelerate a change.
Invinciblegrammie has a great point – why not include economic, religious, age and culture? Oh wait, that is because we already have laws against those things, and they have NOT made a significant difference! Until the PEOPLE change, the law, a unity pledge, promise, or a plea for change will do NOTHING.
If Korte wants to change people’s minds and increase awareness, then she should work on that. Enough with the venom spew, become ACTIVE in education on the necessity for the legislation for LGBT rights. The very least she needs to provide proof that business and people need such a law to come and stay in Scottsdale.
She needs to put her time into leading this charge. Stop trying to tear down others and say – I, Virginia Korte, stand by equal treatment of all PEOPLE. – Oh wait, is that too inclusive for her? Then she needs to then just stick with the LGBT, as that is her whipping post apparently.
Think of it, how many organizations already are doing this? Why hasn’t she said she is NOT going to run for mayor or re-election, BUT said she will devote her time to this effort? If LGBT equality is that important to her, then she needs to put her efforts where her mouthpiece is. DO SOMETHING! To have her mouth piece just babble on about how bad things are, STOP, then say – I am doing the following to ensure that LGBT rights are the same as all PEOPLE have.
That is working towards EQUALITY. That shows you care. Equal rights for all PEOPLE. To drool venom online shows nothing for supporting LGBT rights. Do something about it. So will Virginia Korte get the message? Will she devote her time to bringing forth that desire for equality? Until I see action, she simply throwing a tantrum and calling others names. People can NOT be legislated into behaving a certain way. They need education and examples to follow.