Since I have been going to college, I’ve noticed that my TV viewing has plummeted, especially in the news department. I used to watch the local news almost nightly, but I had fallen off the wagon, and have been ignorant of local happenings for a few months now. I don’t say the same for national and international stories, though, because I read the Huffington Post daily.
Today, however, is a day in the week known as Spring Break, and I am fairly bored, so I figured I’d look at CBS 11’s website and check up on the local goings-on. Lo and behold, I saw a story that captured my eye right from the start:
Dallas Jail Guard Fired Over Anti-Gay Remarks
Ding! Whenever a story comes out about an LGBT topic, I’m tuned in, since I have a personal interest in them. Pretty much, this guy is a religious right wacko who went around claiming that he “disagrees with homosexuality” and that gays should be killed, slavery is justified by the Bible, and other generally ancient and off-the-wall “ideas”. He has a history of racism as well, and claims that dinosaurs are the work of something Satanic (his exact wording was too rambly and wacky for me to really decipher).
What really got me is this little snippet of the story:
“They made it out to be that I was a bigot. I was fired ’cause I hurt someone else’s feelings,” Johnson said Monday. He said that his free speech rights were violated but that he will not appeal.
Wow, where do I start? Well, guess I should start from the beginning. Saying you “disagree with homosexuality” is like saying you “disagree” with being black or being left-handed: it’s saying you don’t like a part of who someone is. It’s a simple fact that being gay is not a choice but is something that occurs in people naturally, as with other animal species.
This guy seems to think that he had the right to say that stuff based on the First Amendment or something. He’s freaking promoting genocide! That is not covered, period, because he is promoting criminal activity against people due to a naturally-occurring trait. Newsflash, guy – you ARE a bigot. Simple as that.
Finally, the part where he claims he was fired because “he hurt someone’s feelings” is really provoking in itself. While he’s going around talking about all this “Christian” belief stuff, he seems to not be aware of one of the Christian principles that he and other religious righties love to ignore – the Golden Rule. Under that rule, which morally applies to *everyone* (not just Christians) he should be treating others the way he wants to be treated. That includes what he calls “hurting someone’s feelings”. Ain’t it amazing how many insensitive pricks there are, Christianity-claiming and otherwise, who seem to ignore a common sense moral like the Golden Rule?
Misfit Manor 
Wow… I think the fact that he is not filing an appeal indicates that he (or his lawyer) has a clue about how whacked-out he is. The sad thing is that the First Amendment usually does protect hate speech. But, in this guy’s case, for him to be a leader and a government official (who is supposed to protect prisoners – not just supervise them), it is a different story. That is why his hate speech probably wouldn’t get First Amendment protection and also probably why he didn’t appeal. I really like this post because you narrow your focus down so much, almost down to just one quote. That allows you to take your time and analyze a small portion of a much larger issue. Nicely done!