If you’re not from NYC you may not have heard of him, but Rev. Al Sharpton is a bit of a fixture around here – he’s even run for mayor (and I voted for him). The man says things that are so true and says them with a frankness that’s wonderfully refreshing. Here’s the latest from him…

It amazes me when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when the they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being delegated into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners. There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people’s bedrooms and claim that God sent you.

Can we clone him? Maybe make a few white versions of him and put them in places like Kansas so his message reaches a broader audience?

Needless to say guys like him are another reason why I love New York. Find me another place where a prominent black minister is saying things like that… And then there’s our blind, black governor who is trying his hardest to get us gay marriage, and the new (black) state senate majority leader who decided he’d rather lose his position than compromise his principles on things like his support for gay marriage (3 anti-gay Democratic senators were threatening to caucus with the Republicans if they didn’t get a vote on gay marriage taken off the table – in the end they lost and he won but the point is he wouldn’t use our civil rights as a bargaining chip for him to get a great deal or power)…

I really can’t imagine living anywhere but NYC…