The Bigot Downtown

I don’t like the fact that one of the county commissioners of Mecklenburgy County is an unabashed bigot who hides his bigotry behind bible quotations (as he did in a recent posting to the comments on a story about him on the Charlotte Observer’s website). He ran unopposed and was elected by his district and whatever bigotry he posts on his personal website is his choice. Freedom of Speech means I have to sit back while a lot of things that are wrong and misleading are portrayed as truth (Fox News). Fine and dandy. This is America and bigoted assholes are part of the deal. But! But! When one of my representatives publishes bigoted and false claims while attaching the great and historic seal of Mecklenburg County to it then we have a problem. You don’t do that. I don’t use my work email to further my political agenda. I don’t use my position as a librarian to force my political beliefs on anyone else. If you come into the library and want to waste your time reading Sarah Palin’s fake autobiography I’ll do everything I can to get a copy into your hands. Shoot, I don’t even try to steer people towards books I think they should read unless they tell me specifically to recommend something I liked. If you like detective romances with half elf vampires I won’t try to force you to read Isaac Asimov.

Bill James is going to be on the agenda for tonight’s county board of commissioners meeting. They should censure him but nothing of any substance will happen. He’ll continue spreading his hate until the people of his district finally decide to vote him out or when the Democratic Party actually tries to defeat him. One thing I do take hope from is a belief I have had for a while which was reiterated by John Grooms in his current column in the local magazine Creative Loafing. Attitudes like James’ are on the way out. He’s already a minority and hopefully in my lifetime folks like him will no longer be considered viable candidates for public office.