The One and Only

Ever since he won the DFL endorsement for 5th District congressional representative earlier this year, Keith Ellison has been besieged by scrutiny -- interviews, articles in the national and international media, reviews of his past personal and professional conduct. In case you didn't know (and you had to have spent the last four months on a deserted island), Ellison will be the first African American to represent the state of Minnesota and the first ever Muslim representative in Congress. This puts incredible pressure on Ellison as he operates under the microscope of such intense attention.

As one of Ellison's soon-to-be constituents, I feel it's necessary to remind the rest of the world that, for all his uniqueness, Ellison was elected to represent the people of Minnesota's Fifth District. Yes, his presence in Congress as the only Muslim at this particular time of national hysteria about the Islamic world makes him a particularly potent public figure. (Case in point, witness the recent outrageous events in which six imams were prevented from boarding a US Airways airplane at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport because someone was suspicious of their prayers while they waited for the flight.) But, please, stop making such a big deal of Ellison's religious beliefs. He doesn't have three heads. He doesn't eat babies for breakfast. And he's not harboring Al Qaeda operatives in his garage.

With all of the heightened media attention now being given to the Islamic world, it's amazing how little real information is being transmitted about it. Daily footage of violence in Iraq between Sunnis and Shiites, as well as coverage of other incidences of violence in the Middle East, may convince the average Jane or Joe that things are out of control in the Islamic world. But it doesn't offer any insight into the whats and whys of the situation. Moreover, it isn't up to Keith Ellison, as the nation's most visible Muslim politician, to explain, refute or comment on it all. No one can hold the psychological projections of so many Americans and be expected to do his job adequately.

And that is really frustrating. Ellison's track record of involvement and advocacy in the district, combined with his experience in mobilizing across different ethnic and racial groups, has given him a solid base of experience from which to a raise a whole host of progressive initiatives at the national level. He's not the perfect representative. From the start of the congressional race, I was concerned about Ellison's history of mishandling his own personal obligations. Public officials shouldn't have unpaid traffic tickets, suspended licenses and missing campaign finance forms and expect folks not to wonder what this might mean for future performance. But, giving Ellison the benefit of the doubt, my central issue was always his track record as an elected official. On that score, Ellison was uniformly considered a strong and effective state representative. Moreover, the opportunity for the people of this community to send a person of color to represent them in Congress represented a unique and positive statement about who and what we are today.

So, to the national media I say, "Stop badgering my representative and let him do the job we sent him to do." It's enough for a new representative to have to find the bathrooms in the House office buildings. Ellison doesn't need to endlessly navigate the treacherous waters of national scrutiny on the way to his desk in Washington. We, his constituents, will have enough chances to render the verdict on his performance when he runs for re-election in two years. In the meantime, let Keith be Keith.