For the past two years, I've donated a signed copy of my book and a dinner date* with me to the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County's annual fundraising dinner for auctioning purposes; in 2007, I was co-emcee of the event. But I'm afraid I will have to boycott this fine organization from now on; they're holding an April 2 reception for the newest Diocese of Orange Bishop, Cirilo Flores, next week at the Monticello-like First American Title Insurance offices in downtown SanTana alongside the pedo-priest-protector apologist St. Thomas More Society.
I winced when I received my invitation to this shindig. The HBA prides itself on helping the downtrodden, more so than other law groups considering so many members are Aztlanistas. Yet the invitation of Flores sullies that legacy. Is the HBA leadership so blinded by Flores' Latino ethnicity and law degree that they're willing to overlook his role in protecting the rapists of so many innocents (a large percentage in the Orange diocese, by the way, of which were Latinos)? There are only two answers to this: hell yes, or no because the organization's leaders still gladly swallow the Communion that is Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown's lies on his sex-abuse scandal. Yeah, I understand too many Latinos still believe in good relations with the Catholic church, but to host a reception for a man that should be jailed is simply insulting to the concept of justice.
