Good work, if you can get it

How many of you know that Mr. Mangan's job is to uphold his view of morality? I mean, he apparently gets paid day in and day out, to judge people according to his view of what is right or wrong.

Mr. Mangan's current battle is in New Buffalo, opposing a "gentleman's club." Now, I'm not saying that a "gentleman's club" is necessarily good or bad, right or wrong. I'm just incredulous that this man travels around espousing his moral views for a living. Good work, if you can get it.

According to the South Bend Tribune, he is also collecting petitions. The thing is, he doesn't care where the petitions are from: "Mangan urged anyone at the meeting, no matter what their ZIP code, to fill out a petition as a statement to elected officials." (SBT 6/16/08)

This "take any signature you can get" tactic does not accurately express the views of the local population. It is the same tactic he and his "No Special Rights" group employed in South Bend in an effort to defeat the amendment to the Human Rights Ordinance. Mangan's group partnered with state and national groups to flood the Common Council with emails against the proposed change - this despite research by Indiana University that 79% of Hoosiers favor equal rights for gays.

I applaud those members of the South Bend Common Council who paid attention to the origin of their emails and letters. Sure, some council members used email statistics as an excuse for their "no" votes. But really, for all of their efforts, I don't think Mr. Mangan's group had any influence on the Council members' opinions. Minds were made up early and prejudices were revealed.

So, if someone like Mr. Sergio wants to pay Mr. Mangan to traverse Michiana spouting off like a geyser, I suppose he has a right to spend his money that way. Maybe they believe they are earning brownie points in heaven? As for me, I'm going to keep my day job.

Who, then, is the professional activist with an almighty agenda?