How a married gay "Catholic" couple lives "their faith"
This blog is loaded with the latest madness from the modern world... Video included
DETROIT — Because their Catholic faith is against same-sex marriage, Bryan Victor and Thomas Molina-Duarte made their wedding vows this summer before a Protestant minister in a Detroit Episcopal church.
Those in attendance included many family members, including Victor’s uncle, who is a Catholic priest and Macomb County pastor. The Rev. Ronald Victor did not officiate but was there because, he told his nephew, the Catholic Church “needs more examples of gay holiness.”
When Victor and Molina-Duarte attend Mass every Sunday, the couple go to a Detroit Catholic church, where Bryan Victor’s mom and dad join them in the pew. In their shared Catholic faith, Victor and Molina-Duarte find spiritual sustenance. And at their parish, they’ve also found acceptance.
“We remain in the church rather than leaving,” said Bryan Victor, 30, a Wayne State University doctoral student in social work. “The reason is that it’s my faith. It’s one of my guides. It’s how I treat people. It gives me a deep sense of community.”
The practice of his Catholic faith, said Molina-Duarte, 29, a leadership coordinator for the Highland Park Ruth Ellis Center, which serves many LGBT youth, “is right and life-affirming for me.
“If it challenges things,” said Molina-Duarte, “that’s more of an afterthought.”
But the Catholic Church is being universally challenged from the pews to the pulpit, by the evolving ways society and many everyday Catholics include and welcome LGBT people.
It was a year of triumph for the LGBT community because the U.S. Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal throughout the country. Yet gay Catholics still wrestle with their church’s condemnation of homosexuality as “disordered” and the church’s prohibition against same-sex marriage.
In 2012, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn overruled an Austrian priest who wanted to ban a gay Catholic man, in a civil registered domestic partnership with another man, from taking his seat on the parish council after other parishioners elected him.
Retired Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a longtime advocate for liberal Catholic causes, said Catholic teaching has long allowed Catholics to let their consciences, in part, be their guide in participating in the church’s rituals and sacraments, even when they may be at odds with church teachings. Gumbleton predicted Catholic teaching against same-sex unions eventually will change, as he noted did its onetime support of slavery and capital punishment.
“It’s clear the movement is there,” Gumbleton said, “but it takes a long time for the teaching to permeate the whole church, and people will fight it.”
Society’s changing norms, however, will not change church teaching that sex is for a man and a woman united in marriage, said Catholic moral theologian Janet Smith, a professor at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary and an adviser to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on the Family.
Jesus encountered many who “were misusing their sexuality,” said Smith, noting that refers to “cohabitors, adulterers, fornicators, you name it.”
“He treated them very lovingly, and he wants them under his roof,” Smith said, “but his words to them were that they should repent and sin no more.”
Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron said through a spokesman that he couldn’t comment for this story without knowing more specifics about the men. Officially, the archdiocese offers the ministry program Courage, to urge gay Catholics to abstain from sex; and another program, EnCourage, to counsel Catholic families with gay members. Fortunate Families, a support group for Catholic families with gay family members, is not officially recognized by the Catholic Church.
At the men’s wedding ceremony, family was in force.
Victor's uncle and Catholic priest Ronald Victor said he was moved by the wedding ceremony, and at the same time, “a little angry and a little disappointed that we couldn’t do it in a church where I could have officiated.”
A card that Tom Molina-Duarte and husband Bryan Victor received from a friend after their marriage. (Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)
“While it’s not necessarily life-giving in a biological way,” said the priest, “it’s life-giving in other ways.”
Pope Francis, said Molina-Duarte, “completely flips the script” when it comes to ministering to gay Catholics.
Pope Francis, while not changing church teaching against gay unions, has made outreach to LGBT people a hallmark of his papacy. When the pope visited the U.S. in September, he met privately with a former student, who is gay, and the man’s partner. But that came after another revelation that confused and contradicted previous papal images of the pope’s outreach to gays — when Francis also privately met with Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk, who refused to issue gay marriage licenses.
Although Catholic teaching says their union and their love are sins, both men say they are at home, and even at peace, in a Catholic church. They have not encountered condemnation or cruelty. Only one relative refused the invitation to their wedding because of opposition to homosexuality.
Both men are Catholic school graduates, and both stopped going to church as young men wrestling with coming out.
The two met in late 2010 through a mutual friend in Chicago, where Molina-Duarte was living at the time. Victor found himself missing the ritual and inspiration he found at Catholic Mass, and Molina-Duarte began to join him at services in Ann Arbor, Mich.
“I felt too unattached from regular church life,” Victor said. “I wanted to embed myself in the life of the church.”
“I hadn’t met someone my age who was gay and had a deep and respectful reverence for the church,” Molina-Duarte said. “Bryan was able to have both.”
Victor and Molina-Duarte moved to Detroit in 2012. They went to a few parishes, but felt most engaged and most welcomed at St. Charles Borromeo. Victor's paternal grandparents grew up in the parish and were married there.
Victor said in the church he finds a welcoming place for “the real-lived experience of people” — and people from society’s margins and the poor.
That they present themselves to regularly receive Communion is not a sin, both men say.
“We examine our consciences and we know that our love for each other does not take us out of a relationship with God,” Victor said. “It takes us into a closer relationship with God. And for that reason,we feel comfortable presenting ourselves for Communion.”
Their sexuality is God-given, Molina-Duarte said. “You’re called to be in community and seek justice and how can you do that in a closet?”
“I carry that Gospel message out to the secular world, and my work is reflective of the church,” Victor said. “I am sustained and nourished by the church. I’m sharing my gifts and talents within the church.”
School Principal Bans Santa, Thanksgiving and Pledge of Allegiance
Santa Claus is banned. The Pledge of Allegiance is no longer recited. “Harvest festival” has replaced Thanksgiving, and “winter celebrations” substitute for Christmas parties. New principal Eujin Jaela Kim has given PS 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a politically correct scrub-down, to the dismay of teachers and parents. “We definitely can’t say Christmas, nothing with Christmas on it, nothing with Santa,” PTA President Mimi Ferrer said administrators told her. “No angels. We can’t even have a star because it can represent a religious system, like the Star of David.”
Kim, 33, did not return a call or e-mail seeking comment. A memo last month from assistant principal Jose Chaparro suggested a “harvest festival instead of Thanksgiving or a winter celebration instead of a Christmas party.” He urged staff to “be sensitive of the diversity of our families. Not all children celebrate the same holidays.” Ninety-five percent of the 1,600 kids at PS 169 are Asian or Hispanic. READ MORE
Christian gran, 68, sentenced to community service for calling Muslims satanic
A CHRISTIAN has been convicted for writing to an Islamic school claiming Muslims “worship Satan”.
Manchester magistrates court heard White also sent Manchester Islamic High School for Girls’ headmistress Mona Mohammed a cartoon booklet called Is Allah Like You?, depicting a Muslim family with a cruel father who becomes kind after converting to Christianity.
You crossed the line between freedom to express your opinions and causing harm to others
White, of Halifax, West Yorks, insisted it was her “duty” to tell Muslims to convert to Christianity.
She denied a charge of sending an indecent or grossly offensive letter and ordered to carry out 100 hours’ unpaid work and pay £510 in costs.
Judge Duncan Birrell told White, who sent 50 similar letters: “You crossed the line between freedom to express your opinions and causing harm to others.”
Muslim Woman Sworn in with Koran as a judge in Brooklyn, NY
Dubai: Amidst Donald Trump’s rabid vitriol that all Muslims should be banned from entering the United States, there was hope: a Black Muslim woman took oath as a judge in Brooklyn, swearing on the Quran.
Carolyn Walker-Diallo was sworn in as a civil judge for the 7th Municipal District at the Brooklyn Burough Hall, New York, after being elected last month.
Walker-Diallo began her legal career as a litigation associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy LLP, according to her website.
She says she saw her parents play a proactive role in the East New York and Cypress Hills communities. Walker-Diallo walked the family’s path of “being the change we want to see in the world” when she assumed charge of a community-based non-profit, named after her father, The George Walker Jr Community Coalition, Inc.
She combined her passion for the law and for the community by creating the East New York Youth Court, which trains youth aged 13-18 to serve as judges, attorneys, clerks, bailiffs and jurors in real cases involving their peers.
The first Muslim woman judge in the United States is Sheila Abdus-Salaam, an African-American who still sits on the New York State Supreme Court. She was first appointed to the bench in 1992.
Another Arab-American, Charlene Mekled Elder, was appointed to the 3rd Circuit Court of Wayne County in Michigan in 2006.
A few years ago, the state of California and New Jersey also appointed their first Muslim judges.
California appointed Halim Dhanidina, whose parents emigrated from Tanzania to the United States in the mid-1960s. He was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.
New Jersey appointed Sohail Mohammad, as its first Muslim Superior Court judge.
Jedi Church flock swells ahead of Star Wars premiere??
More than a thousand people are joining the Jedi Church each day ahead of the new Star Wars’ release, claim its leading adherents, who say the faith boasts 250,000 followers set on “focusing, learning and becoming one with the Force.”
In 2001, some 390,000 people self-identified as Jedis, a figure that more than halved to 177,000 in the 2011 census.
Organizers now claim to have more than 250,000 followers, according to the Telegraph.
Krampus runners wreak havoc on streets of Munich
Some 25 Krampus groups took part in the traditional Krampus Run in Munich on Sunday. Apart from German Krampus groups, this year's run saw groups from such German-speaking areas as Austria and the Italian province of South Tyrol. The Krampus Run is an annual event, traditionally held at the Christkindlmarkt in Munich. During the run, attendees in masks of the beast made way through crowds, occasionally picking individuals and mock-beating them. This tradition stems from the Austro-Bavarian Alpine folklore, where a Krampus is portrayed as a beast punishing misbehaving children.
https://www.rt.com/in-motion/325877-germany-munich-krampus-havoc/
Public School Hosts ‘Walk a Mile in Her Hijab’ Day
"I think this is an opportunity for our kids to embrace the Muslim community within the school"
An Illinois high school held a “Walk a Mile in Her Hijab” event last week in an attempt to help students better understand the Islamic religion.
According to the Daily Herald, six members of Vernon Hills High School’s Muslim Student Association spent Wednesday morning “placing hijabs on 17 non-Muslim girls.”“You can’t really understand or judge a person and their beliefs until you understand why they do it and what it’s like for them to do what they’re doing,” said Yasmeen Abdallah, the group’s president.
Hoping to make the event a yearly occurrence, Abdallah said the reaction among students was mostly positive, with only one student reportedly telling a non-Muslim girl to remove her hijab.
“This event is to hopefully denounce negative stereotypes.”
The
school’s principal, Jon Guillaume, praised the affair as a great
opportunity for students to better understand the school’s Muslim
community.
“I think it is a difficult
time to be a Muslim student in our high school, in our community, and in
America,” Guillaume said. “I think this is an opportunity for our kids
to embrace the Muslim community within the school. For other kids
outside of this organization, to understanding what it’s like for these
girls to walk through our halls in this garment in a way that stands out
from other kids. So, I’m proud of them.”
As noted by education watchdog EAG News, word of the incident stirred controversy online by those who felt the group received preferential treatment.“I have a serious problem with this,” one person wrote on Facebook. “We take Christianity and prayers out of school, but this is allowed! We are not allowed to put up Christmas or Easter decorations at schools but this is allowed. Why is this acceptable?”
“In support of diversity, maybe the Muslim students should go a day without their headdresses?” another said.
“I’m Christian and I LOVE the Qur’an”
UPDATE: I’m informed by several reliable sources that this young woman’s name is Jordan Denari, and that she works with Nathan Lean at the anti-“Islamophobia” Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University’s Saudi-funded Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. The thuggish Lean has several times tweeted out what he thinks is my home address and places I frequent (erroneously), in an obvious attempt either to intimidate me into silence or alert his jihadi friends to my whereabouts. Such are the ethics and standards of this wonderful attempt at “understanding” and “bridge-building.”
And there is so much in it for a Christian to love:Jesus is not the Son of God: “O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, and say not “Three” – Cease! (it is) better for you! – Allah is only One Allah. Far is it removed from His Transcendent Majesty that He should have a son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is sufficient as Defender.” — Qur’an 4:171
And: “It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.” — Qur’an 19:35
Jesus was not crucified: “And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger – they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain.” — Qur’an 4:157
Those who believe in the divinity of Christ are unbelievers: “They have certainly disbelieved who say that Allah is Christ, the son of Mary.” — Qur’an 5:17
Belief in the Trinity is “excess”: “O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, ‘Three’; desist – it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.” — Qur’an 4:171
Christians have forgotten part of the divine revelations they received: “From those, too, who call themselves Christians, We did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent them: so we estranged them, with enmity and hatred between the one and the other, to the day of judgment. And soon will Allah show them what it is they have done.” — Qur’an 5:14
Those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son are accursed: “The Jews call ‘Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth! ” — Qur’an 9:30
Christians who do not accepted Muhammad and the Qur’an are the most vile of created beings: “Nor did those who were given the Scripture become divided until after there had come to them clear evidence. And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, sincere to Him in religion, inclining to truth, and to establish prayer and to give zakah. And that is the correct religion. Indeed, they who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein. Those are the most vile of created beings.” — Qur’an 98:6
Muslims must fight against and subjugate Christians: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” — Qur’an 9:29
“I’m a Christian and I LOVE Muslims”? Absolutely. Love for Muslims is one thing, however, and love for the Qur’an is another. It is strange for someone who professes to be a Christian, who presumably believes that Jesus is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who was crucified and rose from the dead for the salvation of the human race, to profess love for a book that denies all that and says that those who believe it are accursed, vile beings who should be waged war against until they submit to the hegemony of a group that believes differently.
What’s more, although very few Christians would dare say so publicly nowadays, to be a Christian at all assumes a denial that Muhammad is a prophet and the Qur’an a holy book, for they both affirm as matters of faith beliefs that Christians do not hold, and, as we have seen, deny many that Christians do hold.
It may be that the carrier of this sign considers herself a Christian in the spirit of this passage: “Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans — those who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness — will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.” — Qur’an 2:62
This appears at first glance to be a marvelously forward-thinking example of ecumenism: Qur’an commentator Muhammad Asad exults: “With a breadth of vision unparalleled in any other religious faith, the idea of ‘salvation’ is here made conditional upon three elements only: belief in God, belief in the Day of Judgment, and righteous action in life.” But he contradicts himself by adding “in this divine writ” after the words “those who have attained to faith” in his translation of verse 62 — that is, to be saved, one must believe in the Qur’an as well as the earlier revelations.
And indeed, Muslim commentators are not actually inclined to see this as an indication of divine pluralism, but only an affirmation that those Christians who become Muslims will be saved. The translators Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, as well as Asad, all feel it necessary to add parenthetical glosses that make the passage mean that Jews and Christians (as well as Sabians, whose identity is disputed) will enter Paradise only if they become Muslims. Qur’an.com adds “before Prophet Muhammad” in brackets after “Jews or Christians or Sabeans,” making it clear that those three could only be saved as such before the advent of Islam, but now they must convert to Islam to get to Paradise.
And according to Ibn Abbas, this verse was abrogated by Qur’an 3:85: “And whoever desires other than Islam as religion – never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.” Sayyid Qutb opines that 2:62 applied only before Muhammad brought Islam to the world, a view supported by a saying of Muhammad recorded by Tabari, in which the Prophet of Islam says that Christians who died before his coming will be saved, but those who have heard of him and yet rejected his prophetic claim will not be.
It is unlikely, of course, that the person holding this sign has thought any of this through. She is just trying to be nice. And she is unlikely ever to stop and ponder the implications of the fact that no Muslim has been carrying around a sign saying, “I’m Muslim and I LOVE the Bible.”
Meet the Eagles of Death Metal Member Who is Actually A Catholic Priest??
http://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/christianity/eagles-of-death-metals-jesse-hughes-is-actually-a-catholic-priest
Sharia in
Boston: Judge Orders Pastor to Learn and Study Islam
After the Boston jihad bombing, it
appears that the city of Boston has utterly surrendered and submitted to Islam.
“Boston Strong,” my eye.
As you know, my organization is
heading to the Supreme Court to contest the refusal of the Boston TA to run my
anti-jihad ads and pro-Israel ads. They allow vicious anti-Semitic blood libels
to run, but not our ads. That’s sharia.
Now this outrage. First off, I do
not believe that Pastor Daisy Obi, a 73-year-old ordained minister from
Nigeria, threw the Islamic supremacist Gihan Suliman down the stairs. I
think she is a liar — I have seen this too any times. Muslim revenge. Muslims
in Muslim countries under the sharia do this all the time: accuse Christians of
blasphemy in order to get them jailed or punished.
The woman accused of saying
anti-Muslim things and “pushing a Muslim tenant down the stairs” rents to
several Muslims. So clearly she is not anti-Muslim. And secondly, the alleged
victim had upwards of 15 people living her the apartment, so of course the
landlord would complain. Suliman did not respond to messages left at her home
and workplace (of course not).
Suliman said Obi accused her of
ringing her doorbell, shouted at her and pushed her. Suliman said she fell
backward down 15 to 20 stairs, hitting her face on the banister, cutting her
lip and tearing a ligament in her shoulder.
Obi vehemently denied making any
anti-Muslim statements to Suliman or pushing her. She testified she was inside
her apartment praying when she heard a knock at the door from the police, who
arrested her.
Daisy Obi was sentenced her to two
years in jail on the assault and battery charge for pushing Suliman but
required her to serve only six months, with the remaining 18 months suspended
if she complied with certain probation conditions.
“I want you to learn about the
Muslim faith,” he said. “I want you to enroll and
attend an introductory course on Islam. “I do want you to understand people of
the Muslim faith, and they need to be respected. They may worship Allah … but
they need to be respected.”
Obi said in a phone interview that
she believes Suliman had a vendetta against her because she refused to allow
her to let more people live in her apartment.
I believe even if Obi is guilty, why
should she be made to study Islam? It’s a violation of the establishment
clause.
“I’ve never, ever made a rude remark
against her,” she said.
“Why would I do that? I have three
Muslims living in the house now.”
ISIS Vows to Murder Pope – Enslave Christian Women
Express.co reported:
Islamic State (ISIS) has released a chilling video showing their vision of the end of the world as they make more suggestions they are plotting to assassinate the Pope.
The video named “Meeting at Dabiq”, shows shows jihadi tanks advancing on an apocalyptic Rome.
The title references the location where extremist prophecy says the end of the world will occur following a final battle between “believers” and “crusaders.”
The sinister video, set to chilling music, shows Rome turned to a desert of dust.
It features heavily-armoured terrorists approaching the Colosseum and the Vatican City, before the narrator apparently claims ISIS will take over Rome, destroying crucifixes and taking Christian women as slaves.
Virginia Students practice calligraphy by writing “There is no god but Allah”
A Virginia school district is defending a classroom assignment that required students to practice calligraphy by writing the Muslim statement of faith, “There is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Female students at Riverheads High School in Staunton, Virginia, were also invited to wear Muslim clothing — a story first reported by The Schilling Show. The school district convened a meeting on Dec. 11th to discuss the assignment with outraged parents.
“Neither these lessons, nor any other lesson in the world geography course, are an attempt at indoctrination to Islam or any other religion, or a request for students to renounce their own faith or profess any belief,” the district said in a statement provided to Fox News. The Muslim-friendly calligraphy assignment took place in a world geography class. The teacher had the kids copy the Muslim statement of faith, also known as the shahada. Parents told The Schilling Show that their children were not given the translation of what they were writing. READ MORE
Old people auctioned off like cattle in online eBay-style website in the UK
Apparently England’s health care system is strained to the point that elder care distribution goes to the lowest bidder. The UK system itself is open to the current e-bay style auctioning because family members of those too elderly to care for themselves, or too much trouble for those family members, are filtered through local city or county councils. In other words, granny or pop is a mess. Here’s his information, put it on a public forum and find a home for him, please. Those family members are not part of the process of finding what they believe would be the best elder care home. It’s totally bureaucratic and within the UK healthcare system.
The problem is elder care funding has declined over the past several years. And since the councils that act as brokers between family members and elder care homes go through a computer program submitting personal information of elderly prospective clients, the subjective human choice is ignored completely while violating privacy rights. Then those homes interested in accommodating more elderly or disabled folks will bid – eBay style. The bids remain for some hours or days until one is chosen by the council. Often grandma or grandpa goes to the lowest bidder. The family and the elderly patient have no say in the selection as the money for the home comes from the UK healthcare system’s funding. READ MORE
Zombie Apocalypse A Possibility? Rise in Zombie-Like Infection Should Trigger An International Call of Action, An Expert Reveals
DUESSELDORF,
GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 06: Participants take part at the Zombie Walk
Duesseldorf along the Rheinuferpromenade on September 6, 2015 in
Duesseldorf, Germany. A zombie walk is an organized public gathering of
people who dress up in zombie costumes. (Photo by Sascha Steinbach/Getty
Images) (Photo : Sascha Steinbach/Getty Images)
Can a zombie apocalypse really occur? Tara
Smith, an associate professor from Ohio's Kent State University is
issuing an international call to action to fund and promote studies on
how to prevent a possible zombie outbreak."Zombie expert Matt Mogk defines a zombie with three criteria: it is a reanimated human corpse; it is relentlessly aggressive, and it is biologically infected and infectious. But Mogk notes that this definition has been altered by the recognition of 'rage' zombies, which are infected but still alive," Smith wrote on a recently published BMJ study.
Out of the three pathogens, Cordyceps fungus is the most common, with 400 known species. According to the publication, the parasitic fungus invades the body of its host and takes over, using the body as a means to make the fungus spores spread.
In a report by EurekAlert, Smith believes that the increase of similar zombie pathogens should be a sign that additional attention and funding should be provided into studying possible disease outbreaks.
Although the scope of the study appears to sound more like a scene from a movie or television series, researchers from Cornell University believe that the data can prove useful in the event that an outbreak occurs. The Discovery publication says that the researchers went as far as conducting a simulation to show how the zombies would move and spread throughout the United States.
http://www.latinoshealth.com/articles/13743/20151215/zombie-apocalypse-possibility-rise-infection-trigger-international-call-action-expert.htm
D.C. plans to add more traffic cameras
Those are among several measures Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) unveiled Wednesday as part of her commitment to eliminating traffic fatalities by 2024. Her “Vision Zero” action plan lays out strategies for enforcement, public education and street engineering, and also is expected to expand the city’s sidewalk and bicycle network.
“Any loss of life is unacceptable especially if there are things we can do systematically to prevent those losses. That’s why we talk not only about reducing traffic fatalities but getting to zero,” Bowser said at a Wednesday morning news conference. “We can do this by being steadfast in our investments and steadfast in implementing those investments.”
The goal, she said is to create safe streets, prevent dangerous driving and protect vulnerable residents– pedestrians and bicyclists– through speed reduction efforts.
The plan released early Wednesday called for the city to “deploy 100 additional cameras,” by October 2017, targeting violations including speeding, red light, stop sign, crosswalk and gridlock law breakers. But D.C. transportation officials Wednesday afternoon backed away from that number saying it had inadvertently been left in the 110-page document.
The city considered adding 100 cameras, but the mayor’s final plan would not specify a number, Terry Owens, an spokesman for the D.C. Department of Transportation said.
If the District adds 100 cameras over the next two years, it will significantly increase its automated enforcement. The city currently operates 153 traffic cameras, including 97 speed, 42 red-light, 7 stop sign, and 7 oversize or weight cameras, according to the Vision Zero plan.
“We do have plans to strategically deploy cameras, but [the total number to be added] was something we decided not to include in the final document,” said Owens, noting that the sole reference to 100 additional cameras was in the appendix and it was left there by mistake. “We acknowledge our mistake. It is an oversight in our part.”