Human rights commissions: hotbeds of pointy-headed busy work and leftist mischief

The other tab that I have open besides this one on which I'm composing this post is a video of the latest meeting of the human rights commission in the city where I live.

My public-policy focus is generally not local, and so I only ever had a vague notion of what the human rights commission did.  A couple of years ago, I had an assignment for a local magazine (note to new readers: My day job is freelance writing.)  to look at how area businesses can make themselves more accessible to handicapped folks.  My editor, understandably, suggested I start with the human rights commission.  I met with the head lady in her office in city hall.  She was your typical smiley-face government bureaucrat.  I was looking for stuff above and beyond the letter of the law, so I could make it a human-interest story, but she just kept coming back to "compliance" with state and federal codes.

God, I hate that word: "compliance."

Can you imagine sitting around all day going online to look up arcane specifications for restaurant doorway widths and restroom sink heights?  What a dismal existence.

Lately the fact of its presence has come across my radar screen as a result of conversations and news items in the local media.  So I thought, just what does this outfit do?

So here I am, checking out the proceedings.  So far, they've given a plaque to one guy and thanked him for his service.  Some lady gave a report about a recent audit that the city got from state and federal departments of transportation, the point of which was to make sure that city public transportation was  - you guessed it - "in compliance" with regs, that is, not discriminating against anybody.  What do they suspect us of?  Some kind of Rosa Parks treatment of bus riders?

It was called a Title VI audit.  The city had to undergo it because it receives state and federal funds.

Now, here's a really basic question, and I suppose those with extensive backgrounds in transportation will find it the height of naiveté: Why aren't we able to cover all the costs of our public transportation with local dollars?

Ah, now, some other lady - or maybe it's the same one; the camera is set pretty far back from the action - is talking about going to some conference at which the Department of Justice - yes, Eric- Holder's bastion of tyranny, corruption and diversity-hustling - was providing guidelines to municipalities on how to not discriminate against Muslims.

By the way, is our city any closer to determining who spray-painted jihadist graffiti on three churches one Saturday night in August?

Now we're getting somewhere.  There's a national-scope angle to this stuff after all.

Now we're back to bureaucratic doo-doo: forming a subcommittee for self-audit or whatever.

Now the lady is talking about going to a meeting of the diversity council of a local university.  Planning MLK Day activities.

A report on a project that enlists high school students to come up with ideas for how to help the commission fulfill its mission, which is "bringing awareness to the community."  Sheesh, are we paying the folks on this outfit to pass their time with this kind of nothingness?

Now there's some kind of discussion about getting disabled people on the mayor's advisory council's sidewalk subcommittee.  I thought I remembered hearing that that stuff had been dealt with when I wrote my article.

Now some guy is talking about poverty being a human-rights issue and how the commission should work with United Way on stuff like getting more people to get at least two years of high school.  Various people mentioning people associated with various agencies around town that they can network with.

More stuff about how to thank those who have contributed to the commission's activity.  Planning an annual dinner or something.

Finally over!  That was nearly interminable.  I feel like I need a bracing cocktail, and it's the middle of the day.

Seriously, what a lot of busy-work, self-congratulation, involvement of the federal leviathan in the life of the community, and Muslim suck-up.  How did we ever get along without this taxpayer-funded playpen?