Ala. Sheriff's (website's) Anti-Gay Views Draw Protest

[rainbow4321]

http://www.baytownsun.com/wire.lasso?report=/dynamic/stories/A/ANTI_GAY_SHERIFF?SITE=TXBAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. (AP) -- Marshall County Sheriff Mac Holcomb is a no-nonsense lawman who remembers the 1940s and 1950s as a better time than now. He spells his views out on a Web site for all to see. Don Hunter, an Anniston native who is now a deputy administrator for Marin County, Calif., ran across it and didn't like what he saw - a law officer publicly condemning homosexuality as "an abomination."

The sheriff, reflecting on growing up in the 1940s and 1950s, says on the Web site: "Men were men and women were women and there was no mistaking which was which ... Homosexuality was very queer and a despicable act ... an abomination."

In his written remarks, the 61-year-old sheriff says the 1940s and 1950s were a safer, more respectful, religious time, and he promises "to devote all my energy to do my part to return our society to the values that we once held dear."

Marshall County Commission Chairman Billy Cannon said the county pays for the Web site but has no authority over the sheriff and would probably need a court order to make him remove his message.

[Book Lover]

1. Say whatever you want on your own dime

But when you're picking taxpayer's pocket to pay for your web hosting and bandwidth, shut up. May I also remind this imbecile that a gay man, Alan Turing, cracked Enigma and saved Western Civilization (TM) from Hitler?

[rainbow4321]

5. Here is the website--w/ his email address : ) : )

http://www.marshallco.org/www/so/so.htm


I am proud to be an American and that I was fortunate enough to be born in Alabama. The state that has its motto "We dare defend our rights". I was raised in era, the 1940's as a child and the 1950's as a teenager, which I remember with great affection.

During this era, love of God, family, and country abounded. Men were men and women were women and there was no mistaking which was which. Both were proud of their individual roles. Homosexuality was very queer and a despicable act… an abomination.

During this era, those parents that owned televisions didn't have to worry that their children might be subjected to filth on television such as nudity, the use of God's name in vain, and other profanity because it was unheard of. Parents could allow their children to go to a movie without having to screen it first because the good guy always wore the white hats. There was no question who the "Good Guy" was. Even the "Bad Guy" in the movie didn't use foul language. During this era our nation had a conscience including the television and movie industry.

Children's school days started with the recitation of the "Lord's Prayer" and the "Pledge of Allegiance" to the flag of the United States of America.

[Book Lover]

12. "Hey Lois! Here are two symbols of the Republican Party!"

An elephant and a fat middle aged white guy afraid of change."

[Frances]

15. He's right

In the 1940s and 1950s I began every school day with the Pledge of Allegiance which includes the words "with liberty and justice for all."

I attended Alabama public schools from 1st grade through college. Not until after I graduated from college was a single African American allowed to enter any of the schools I attended.

My elementary and high school were only 2 blocks from the delapidated African American school buildings. My father told me that the high school principal at the African American school told him that the high school had no books for the students. I don't mean no books for a library. I mean there were no books for the students period.

When I went to the court house, I got a drink of water from the fountain that said Whites Only.

[Maat]

17. Well, it's all laid out there.

The Religious Right (and this guy is the classic representation of it) wants to return us to the 1950's. I, as a woman, am so thrilled to know that . (a 46-year-old one that remembers the early 60's at least). I've always felt as a law student that Rehnquist was always more comfortable with us returning to the 50's (if you've ever had to read one opinion of his, and then another ..), but at least he is for preserving an occasional constitutional right or two (and maybe even the separation of powers).

[VegasWolf]

26. You mean they have courthouses in Alabama? n/t

[sympa]

27. perhaps just a freudian slip or maybe not...

when he says "Parents could allow their children to go to a movie without having to screen it first because the good guy always wore the white hats." is he referring to THE white hats that come to mind when thinking about the deep south during and prior to the civil rights movement? with the level of paranoia he expresses on the site, i unfortunately wouldn't be too surprised if that is exactly what he meant.
:eyes:

[brentspeak]

29. Not one black officer in that whole bunch

I find it very hard to believe that there are no black residents in the area.

And the women all have what looks to be dyed red hair, like it's what is required of them.

[QC]

32. Marshall County is 1.5% black.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/01/01095.html

It's amazing what one can find out with Google and about three seconds of time.

[brentspeak]

34. self del n/t

n/t

[Frances]

7. I was born in 1941 in Alabama

and lived there until 1967. There were gays in my town. The son of a columnist for our local paper was gay. Whenever the son, who lived in Atlanta, visited our town, the social column would say that the son and his friend had come to town. I respect the columnist for putting the visit in the paper.

The editor of the paper in the neighboring town was gay. One of the Mobile papers ran his column. I think it was called Rambling Roses and Flying Bricks.

[BamaBecky]

18. Hi Frances! Why can't folks just live and let live?

:hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hug:

[livinginphotographs]

23. What?

I thought gay people were invented in the 70's! /sarcasm

[mcscajun]

2. So maybe the county can stop the financial support for the website?

Free speech doesn't require that the government pay for it.

[Lautremont]

3. What a fuckin' freakshow this guy is!

'"Take Rush Limbaugh, Roy Moore and Bufford Pusser and roll them together and you get Mac," Cannon said.'

That's like putting Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin together to get one single politician. Oh, wait - they did.

[quaoar]

4. New formula for electoral success in Alabama

1. Make anti-gay statements
2. Make sure someone sees them who will be outraged and call the media.
3. When the media rakes you over the coals, say you are just defending good ole fashioned American values.
4. Voters will re-elect you in a landslide to show those gay-loving, Yankee bastards to mind their own damn business.


Guntersville, BTW, is a nice place. Lake Guntersville has a thriving bald eagle population.

[NV Whino]

6. !!!

Lake Guntersville has a thriving bald eagle population.

For Gawd's sake don't tell Dubya... thre go the bald eagles.

[Ian David]

8. Asshole Sheriff

Probate judge
Probate Judge: Tim Mitchell
424 Blount Avenue
Guntersville, AL 35976
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]



Personnel Administrator: Charles Smith
424 Blount Avenue
Guntersville, AL 35976
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

[Dude_CalmDown]

24. My oh my! What a diverse little department they've got there! n/t

*

[saltpoint]

9. Well, dang.

Back in the 40s and 50s men were men and women were women.

But now the line is blurred?

Must be a REASON they're blurred. Who's to blame? The hippies? The liberal media? Rock'n'roll? Chips Ahoy cookies?

Goddamit, I want some answers.

----
edit: typo -- Chips Aholy to Chips Ahoy (but I almost left it in as the next hot marketing idea...)

[deminflorida]

10. Don't forget the Lynchings Sheriff Holcomb...and the state's

famous electric chair, Old Yellar (yellow)....Yellar because of all the piss that rain down the legs of it's victims.

Ahh the the good ole days in Alabama......

Boy we're going to pass enough electricity through you to light up Birmingham.

:eyes:


Oh. and I dare anyone to bash me for bashing Alabama, I was born there.

[KamaAina]

11. Hmmm... 1940s and 1950s... rural Alabama... what are you picturing?

In his written remarks, the 61-year-old sheriff says the 1940s and 1950s were a safer, more respectful, religious time, and he promises "to devote all my energy to do my part to return our society to the values that we once held dear."

As I recall, the "values" that Holcomb and his ilk "once held dear" in that place at that time included -- indeed, were based on -- good, old-fashioned, unvarnished racism.

Safer? Not to folks like Emmett Till, in neighboring Mississippi. More respectful? Not to anyone who ever had a dog sicced on him by Bull Connor. Religious? Tell it to Rev. Martin Luther King.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

13. I'm picturing

the KKK, the lynchings, the second class citizenship for African Americans, and remembering the march on Selma, the bombings in Birmingham, etc, etc, that happened in the 60s.

[davidinalameda]

14. AAARRRGGGHHHH

where does these wingnuts come from

are they specially bred in some medical facility or do they hatch full grown with such hatred

[izzybeans]

16. Hit this thread and DU a poll in Huntsville on a subject

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2942528

edited to add:

and here is a message board at the news channel.

http://chat.whnt.com/eshare/server?action=190&PAGE=16&BOARD=9&ARTICLE=2508&START=0&RANGE=100&EXPANDFULLY=0&EXPANDBRANCH=0&ASORT=3&BSORT=1

[Wabbajack]

19. Please tell me he's a puke and

not what passes for a Demcorat down there in Alabama.

[DavidDvorkin]

20. 61 and he remembers the 1940s?

Possibly, but in a very childish way, if at all.

I'm 61, and my clearer memories, especially of complex social issues, begin at a rather later date than the 1940s.

[MsMagnificent]

21. His zygotic memory, ya know

Let's see... 61 would be born in 1943...

Yep, his pre-conception/zygotic/embryonic/infantile/very small child sweet & perfect memories when men were real men and women twirled, whirled, twirled all day long around their kitchens, 'a la ballet, in pure Tantric orgasmic enjoyment all over their new powder-blue electric range.

Ahh... those were the days. I'm sure his memories of pre-womb, pre-scrotal, pre-conception are especially warm and fuzzy.

Well, fuzzy anyhow.
Sheesh :eyes:

[KamaAina]

22. Fun with Yahoo! Search: Enter "sheriff holcomb marshall county"

and sit back as the reich wing crap rolls in! There's some Roy Moore-esque Ten Commandmentrs bilge ("Love thy neighbor as thyself", anyone?), but the blue-ribbon prize winner for today is the almost obligatory sexual harassment suit -- with a twist: the plaintiffs were inmates in the county jail!

http://www.patrickcrusade.org/huntsville_times.htm

GUNTERSVILLE - Six former female inmates at the Marshall County Jail charge in a federal lawsuit that jail employees sexually harassed them.

The suit alleges that one jail employee forced a prisoner to perform oral sex, and that jail employees asked the women to expose themselves and touched the women on the buttocks and breasts.

Named as defendants are Marshall County and the County Commission, the Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Mac Holcomb and several present and former jail employees. One defendant, Ryan Johnson, resigned as a jailer last year and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge involving a female inmate.

The suit claims the women inmates were deprived of their rights while jail employees were working "under the color of law" and that the county and the sheriff are liable for their actions.

Let me guess... they serve falafel in the jail instead of bread and water :evilgrin:

Edit: speling

[Dude_CalmDown]

25. "the almost obligatory sexual harassment suit"

Yes, you had me laughing out loud on that one. Thanks.

[brentspeak]

31. Good catch!

The good ol' days, Sheriff, when you and the boys could take advantage of your female prisoners.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

28. oh come on

you know all these cops are closet cases.

[DBoon]

30. Yeah, Blacks and Whites couldn't use the same facilities back then too

I imagine he would want to bring back these traditional values too.

[Erika]

33. I sent my email to Mac

My husband was raised in the South during that time period. Blacks were required to move off the sidewalks into the gutters so whites wouldn't be inconvenienced. If you weren't their color Mac's), religious domination, or like them in every way, Southern life was very cruel.

My email expressed those thoughts.