Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen is under attack after making a “flippant” comment about mandatory church attendance which was then Tweeted by Sen. Steve Farley. Farley, whose extreme behavior was questioned by fellow Democrats earlier this month, implied that Allen wanted to pass a bill requiring attendance.
Popular liberal blogger, David Abie Morales, in March 3 article describes an attack by Farley on a lowly Tucson area school board member, who had dared to support desegregation funding legislation that Farley opposed. “State Senator Steve Farley made the biggest waves, somehow lacking the courage to confront his own senate colleagues who matter (since they have the vote) and calling them racist,” wrote Morales, Farley “had no problem calling on a school board member to resign (WTF?) because he was getting involved in the political process.”
Morales called the attack “disturbing to watch due to all the theatrics, but basically everyone kept ganging up on Hicks the whole time. When he tried to speak, TUSD board president Adelita Grijalva would shut him up. When Steve Farley personally attacked a board member when he was supposed to instead be giving a “legislative update” she still let him continue.”
Other legislators speculate that it could be one of two things that have prompted Farley’s recent erratic behavior. He is either embarrassed that his bullying antics were exposed earlier this month, and/or he is doing nearly anything he can to earn media attention to increase name recognition for a Congressional run.
Whatever the case may be, Sen. Allen, a plain spoken rural Arizona resident with very traditional values, bemoaned the fact that “once again the public is being purposely misled.”
Allen issued a public statement in response to Farley’s media campaign:
“I have no bill about church attendance. I said this in a flippant way during a very long committee meeting where gun violence was being debated that maybe it would be better if such a bill was run since the problem with America today is the moral climate. The senator who tweeted this and the media reporting knows there is no bill but then there is a lack of integrity among those who fuel misinformation.
I do stand by my remarks stating that we need a moral rebirth in our country. Do you realize that Arizona is a leading state in our country for trafficking in child pornography? I am not talking about naked pictures of children but videos of infants and young children being raped! We are looking for money to increase the task force that is fighting this.
We are considering a bill that makes it a Felony 5 if you maliciously send out a naked picture of someone on the internet why are people sending such pictures to begin with? Police officers are being killed in our streets every day and gun shootings are common. We are having to increase the funding to our Child Protective Services due to parents who are neglecting or abusing their children. Crimes related to drug addiction is the largest percentage of people serving in our prisons and drugs are destroying our families. I could go on and all of this we have to deal with at the Legislature we are being asked to solve these problems and to find the money to address them.
“America’s problem is not erosion of the soil but erosion of the soul” I stand by this statement I apologize to no one for it.”