Bobby Rush – Technical Foul But Great Respect

Last week, Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush, a Democratic Congressman, was ordered to leave the House chamber because he was dressed inappropriately. Rush was wearing a hooded sweatshirt in honor of Trayvon Martin.

The Congressman stood and commenced his speech in a suit jacket, but removed it revealing a hoodie underneath. “Racial profiling has to stop,” Rush said. “Just because someone wears a hoodie, [it] does not make them a hoodlum.”

It’s against House rules to wear headgear in the chamber.

Rush (CSPAN)

I want to tip my hat (or other headgear) at Congressman Rush – he had a point to make and the use of props (not unknown in the house) made it all the more prominent – hit the TV shows and even gave the Congressman his deserved debut slot on Left Coast Voices.

Check out the clip from The Daily Show – sometimes satire is work a thousand blog posts.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-march-26-2012-shaquille-o-neal

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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at http://www.alonshalev.com/ and on Twitter (@alonshalevsf).