Monkey Business In The Obama Campaign

Linda Ramirez Sliwinski is a Trustee of the Village of Carpentersville, Illinois. She has received a $75 citation for “disorderly conduct,” and probably won’t stand for reelection.

According to an article in the Chicago Tribune,

Ramirez Sliwinski said she saw two boys climbing a tree next door to her home about 1 p.m. Saturday and asked them to stop. The mother of one of the boys called police after Ramirez Sliwinski referred to the children, ages 8 and 9, as monkeys.

Ramirez Sliwinski, who is Hispanic, was issued a citation alleging that she violated a village ordinance prohibiting disorderly conduct. The ordinance bans conduct that disturbs or alarms people, and one of the boys told police he was scared by Ramirez Sliwinski’s comment, Police Cmdr. Michael Kilbourne said….

The mother told police her son and a friend were playing in a tree in front of their house in the 0-99 block of Sparrow Road when Ramirez Sliwinski came outside and told them to quit playing in the tree like monkeys, Kilbourne said.

Ramirez Sliwinski, who has been an opponent of efforts by some on the Village Board to crack down on illegal immigrants, said she meant no racial undertones by her comment.

Because Ms. Ramirez Sliwinski is an Obama delegate to the Democratic Convention, this “monkey business” presented an ideal opportunity for Sen. Obama to demonstrate his post-racial leadership by intervening to calm roiled racial waters, by telling everyone in effect to “chill” and not manufacture racial insults out of innocent backyard comments. And, sure enough, he did intervene, putting on display once again the judgment, character, and willingness to stand up to extremists in his camp that we’ve come to expect from him. As the Chicago Sun Times reports:

Moving to nip in the bud some potential bad press, White House hopeful Barack Obama’s campaign persuaded a delegate to step down after she was ticketed for calling her neighbor’s African-American children “monkeys.”

Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, a Carpentersville village trustee, was elected as an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She sports an Obama sign in her front yard.

In The Speech Obama said, now famously:

I can no more disown [Rev. Jeremiah Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

But he showed no hesitation whatsoever in disowning his loyal delegate, Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, who uttered no racial or ethnic stereotype. As the Sun Times noted,

Ramirez-Sliwinski admitted she used the word “monkeys,” but said she did not intend racism. She said she was only trying to protect them from falling out of the tree.

“Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski said she saw the kids playing in the tree and didn’t want them falling out of the tree and getting hurt. She said she calls her own grandchildren ‘monkeys,’” Kilbourne said.

Increasingly, Barack Obama appears to have less backbone and political courage than … Bill Clinton. Every time he is presented with a “Sister Souljah moment,” he lines up in defense of Sister Souljah.

Say What? (6)

  1. Laura(southernxyl) April 9, 2008 at 7:28 pm | | Reply

    It’s not that egregious to call tree-climbing children “monkeys” is it? But I don’t understand why she felt compelled to correct the behavior of these kids who were not hers, playing in their own yard. I climbed my share of trees when I was a kid. This is a strange story.

  2. andrew April 10, 2008 at 3:41 am | | Reply

    I would hate to be a spoiler, but are not all of us apes?

    http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=24413&rendTypeId=4

  3. mf24 April 10, 2008 at 8:47 am | | Reply

    I don’t understand why she felt compelled to correct the behavior of these kids who were not hers, playing in their own yard.

    An Obama supporter poking her nose in other peoples business, acting nannyish and hyper-controlling?

    Welcome to your possible future, America.

  4. Dom April 10, 2008 at 12:22 pm | | Reply

    “There has been friction between Ramirez Sliwinski and her neighbors in the past. She said she has told them to turn down loud music and has instructed them on how to properly use the village’s new garbage bins.”

    I think that explains it. The neighbors found a way to get back at her.

  5. Ian April 10, 2008 at 2:39 pm | | Reply

    She didn’t even call them “monkeys” – she told them to “stop playing in the tree like monkeys”. The Chicago Sun Times (http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/883120,CST-NWS-trustee08.article ) reported.

    On Saturday, two neighbor children were playing in the tree next-door to her house. Ramirez-Sliwinski “came outside and told the children to quit playing in the tree like monkeys ….”

  6. Father OMalley April 18, 2008 at 1:58 am | | Reply

    P.C. on P.C.. an open borders advocate that might have used the racist or bigot card in her opinions spoken to those against open borders and illegal aliens, being trumped by the pro’s, Black Americans.. sensitive they be, especially if it means controlling what others say and fermenting the “oppressed” victimization many claim falsely… ironic is it not?

    Anyone like LaCrosse?

    Then Bridget Bardot is facing a $24000 fine or imprisonment in France for complaining about the Islamification of her own country…

    Victims everywhere from free speech! Wow. ..

    How about someone telling the black lady, “If you don’t like what your hispanic neighbor said, it is sure tough being you, huh?

    Get over it”..

    But how “insensitive” that is.. tsk, tsk..and what of this black lady’s “self esteem”, as we go down the merry path of MAO and political correctness and our first love Obamanation… Whew, scary…

    Father O’Malley

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