I have to admit it. Not much newsworthy happens in Omaha, Nebraska. Today, the usually quiet city of about four hundred thousand is mostly known as the home of billionaire extraordinaire Warren Buffet. But before Warren there was and still is, state Senator Ernie Chambers. Simply being the only black state senator in a single chamber legislature is reason enough for fame. He rose to prominence as a civil rights leader after the north side race riots of 1966. Mr. Chambers, a barber by trade, has represented Omaha's predominately black near north side for thirty-eight years making him the longest serving sentor in the state's history. He is finally being forced out of the legislature because of term term limits. Senator Chambers is also known for his peculiarly non-mainstream sense of humor. He is a master at pricking the tender sensibilities of stodgy Midwestern burghers who like their politics on the right and their football strait ahead. He got local educators wagging their heads in 2006 when he proposed segregating Omaha public schools as a means of insuring schools in minority neighborhoods got a fair share of resources, since the schools were already segregated in fact and the minority schools were being disadvantaged.May I direct your attention to the case at bar. Senator Chambers is a graduate of Creighton University School of Law but does not practice the profession. Nevertheless, he has no qualms about suing the largest authority in the universe, God. That is not a saint's halo around the Senator's head but an electric fan. He should perhaps wish it were. Chambers is an atheist in a very pious place. He routinely absents himself from the prayer that begins each session of the state's unicameral. The 1966 Academy Award winning documentary, A Time for Burning, shows the young barber telling Rev. Luther Youngdahl that his "Jesus is contaminated". In September last year, Senator Chambers filed a case in Douglas County for an injunction against God for various perceived malfeasances practiced on the human race. The district court judge assigned is prone to dismiss the suit for lack of service of process on the respondent. Never one at a loss for a legal argument, Mr. Chambers has asked the judge to take judicial notice of the defendant's divine powers of omniscience and omnipresence even in Douglas County, Nebraska. Of course by filing the case, Mr. Chambers is making a point with wit and humor, as is his usual style. Exhibiting the typical reticence of prairie folk, the judge has taken the issue of God's right to due process under advisement. Whatever the ruling politics in Nebraska will never be the same without Senator Ernie Chambers, the "angriest black man in Nebraska".
[photo credit: AP]