Edward I. Koch
Wednesday, March 22, 2006

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St. Patrick's Day Parade Controversy

A great opportunity to end the controversy that has confronted the St. Patrick's Day Parade every year was rejected by the parade's chairman, John Dunleavy. The newly elected speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, had proposed that gays and lesbians who wanted to march in the parade join the members of the City Council, who march every year under their own banner. As a negotiating proposal, Quinn had stated that those marching could wear a button identifying them as supporters of gay rights, rather than carry a banner.

The parade chairman's response was reported in the Daily News as follows: "John Dunleavy ... recently defended the parade's refusal by saying it would be akin to letting neo-Nazis join an Israeli parade or the Ku Klux Klan into an African-American event."

Speaker Quinn, an Irish-American woman who in every one of her campaigns for public office has identified her sexual orientation as lesbian, responded, "I can't march in a place where I'm not welcome." The News reporter asked me for my comment and I "denounced Dunleavy's remarks as foolish and called on him to apologize." Heretofore, the objection to gays and lesbians marching was not to their orientation, but their demand they be allowed to carry identifying banners stating their orientation.

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I urged Speaker Quinn this year, and now certainly for next year, to simply invite gays and lesbians and their supporters to join the City Council parade group without banners, which have been prohibited in the parade for any cause for many years. Simply by their numbers in the parade, they would be making a statement, and, as Senator Hillary Clinton put it, "celebrating the Irish-American community."

City Council members and staff march in the parade every year. I have marched in that parade for at least 40 years, going back to my own days as a City Council member in 1967 and 1968 before I was elected to Congress. I have no doubt that the vast number of Irish-Americans living in this city are very proud of the fact that one of their kin is now the speaker of the City Council, having been elected to the position by her fellow Council members.

South Dakota's Abortion Law

South Dakota has enacted a law that sets up a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal. The South Dakota law prohibits abortion for any and all reasons other than when needed to save the life of a pregnant woman. I predict that the U.S. Supreme Court, notwithstanding the two latest additions and their known opposition to abortion, will nevertheless, on the basis of "stare decis" (precedent), uphold Roe v. Wade.

I also believe that the recent congressional legislation prohibiting the procedure known as partial-birth abortion, except to save the life of the mother, will be struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court unless the legislation is cured by Congress or interpreted by the Court to include as an exception the health of the mother. I believe the Court will instruct the Congress or will itself modify the legislation defining "health" as only that pertaining to the reproductive ability of the mother. To use the word health without limitation would permit the proverbial truck to drive through the loophole.

Iran's Nuclear Cabability

I believe the U.S. should enter into discussions with Iran, as proposed by Iran, concerning that country's involvement in the affairs of Iraq. I also support the statement by the Bush administration that it will use all means required to make certain that Iran does not achieve the capability of manufacturing a nuclear bomb.

The technology was probably provided to Iran by A.Q. Khan, head of the Pakistani nuclear bomb development agency, but what Iran now needs is the ability and time to manufacture the nuclear fuel for the bomb. It already has the missile that can deliver the bomb to Europe and to Israel. That explains why our European NATO allies have taken a relatively united and strong position on this issue vis-à-vis Tehran, seeking to bring Iran before the U.N. Security Council for a warning and future sanctions.

A New Democrat Platform

President Bush has undoubtedly been politically weakened in the last few months. Nevertheless, he has scored three major victories:

1. the U.S. Supreme Court upholding a law, as The New York Times described it, "that cuts federal financing for universities if they do not give military recruiters the same access to students that other potential employers receive";
2. passing the revised Patriot Act, "making permanent most of the major provisions of the original 2001 law";
3. getting Republican critics of President Bush, such as Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, to agree to legislation that creates a seven-member terrorist surveillance subcommittee that would receive all details concerning the National Security Agency wiretap program and allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.

   According to The Times, "the measure would require the administration to seek a warrant from the court whenever possible." Apparently, the old 72-hour warrantless exception will now be 45 days.

• national health insurance;
• pension protection;
• simplification of prescription drug coverage;
• yearly increase in the minimum wage based on inflation;
• a national affordable housing program;
• Social Security reform;
• safeguarding the right to abortion;
• protecting the environment;
• a Manhattan Project to provide alternative sources of energy;
• more scholarships for higher education;
• immigration laws dealing with current illegals while protecting our borders;
• a fairer tax code, eliminating loopholes favoring the rich and special interests;
• enhancing the security of our airports, seaports and cargo from terrorists; and
• the priority issue of Iraq and Afghanistan exit strategies to bring our soldiers home unless our allies join us in Iraq and the Shia-dominated Iraqi government rescinds the theocratic aspects of the current constitution.

At the end of the process, we should be in a position to say to the voters: Here are a dozen or so major issues stating where we stand as a party. If you agree with us on ten of them, you should join with us in electing a majority to the Congress next November. If you agree with our position on every issue, see a psychiatrist.

Edward I. Koch, author, lawyer and talk radio host, was a member of the U.S. Congress and, for 12 years, the 105th mayor of New York City.

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