Bibles On The Bike Path

Distributing Bibles on school property could be dangerous, according to the State Attorney's Office spokesperson, Matt Helmerich, in commenting upon a lawsuit filed in Key West Federal Court against the Monroe County Sheriff's office and the State Attorney's office. The suit was filed after two persons (Gideons members) were arrested while distributing Bibles on a bike path near a school. The Gideons are challenging a Florida law that purportedly prohibits persons who do not have "legitimate business" (whatever that means) from loitering within 500 feet of a school.

"If we let anyone with a stack of Bibles on school property, that would be tantamount to giving a license to sexual predators," Helmerich reportedly told The Citizen, while, according to The Citizen, "emphasizing that he was not suggesting Gideons members are sexual predators."

He told The Citizen, "The arrest was not based upon a freedom of speech issue, it was based on protecting our children. The idea that we are arresting them or charging them because they are handing out Bibles is a spurious claim."

Really? Let us understand this, Mr. Helmerich. You are not claiming the two who were arrested are sexual predators, so they were not arrested for that. You apparently admit they all they were doing is handing out Bibles. What exactly were they doing that was not "legitimate" if they were only handing out Bibles?

Oh, we get it, you really just want to "protect" bike path users. some of whom may happen to be kids, but some of whom may also be adults, from that dangerous stuff in the Bible, is that it?

No?

So then, is it that (when you seem to have no good arguments left) you think it's O.K. to inferentially trash these defendants by evoking the dangerous, fearful, what-if-they-were-but-we're-not-saying-they-are "sexual predator" words? That way no one might really think carefully about what you have said, and might accept your argument that passing out Bibles on the bike path within 500 feet of a school constitutes "loitering" and is not "legitimate."

Well, guess what? We have thought about what you apparently have said, and we think it's in the running for our "Dumbest Statement of the Year Award."

The Don & Tom Show

". . . I'm one of probably six remaining Americans who still believe in the concept of free speech." So says Tom Walker in his column in The Citizen. Really? We wonder who the other five are.

Is it possible that the FCC believes there is a difference between the public airwaves and a private newspaper regarding the extent of the "free speech" to which those who rent the airspace from the public are entitled?

If not then maybe we would not have had the enormous fines generated by a "wardrobe malfunction."

As for not being permitted to use the words, "poop" and "bonehead" in The Citizen, well, what can one say?

Are We All Hypocrites?

You "cannot harbor malice toward others and then cry foul when someone displays intolerance against you. Prejudice tolerated is intolerance encouraged." That's the point Harvey Fierstein makes in talking about the aftermath of the Imus termination by CBS Radio.

He encourages to speak out "against words and deeds of hate, but only if we are willing to rise up against them all, including your own."

We in the Annex have needed for a long time to look inward before we talk about how intolerant the rest of Key West is against us. We are not without our own sins here, yet we tend to act in a patronizing, ignorant and intolerant way when we talk about the how the City has treated the Annex and seemingly "favored" Bahama Village. We have sat in TAMPOA Board meetings and other meetings in the Annex and listened to conversations of intolerance from other spectators, who were not only intolerant but uninformed. Some of those same spectators have written comments on this blog. We have, for better or worse, declined to publish some of the more "hateful" and intemperate comments some of those same folks have tried to post here as the comments were, in our view, too far over the top without contributing anything more to the thread of the discussion underway. Suffice it to say, intolerance is alive and well in the Annex, and most of us are not even aware of it.

But just so we are even handed in making our point here, we don't want our City readers to think that all is well at their end of the spectrum either. Nor do we want anyone to think that we believe we are free from criticism by those who believe we are the same as those we are talking about here. In writing this post we know we are opening ourselves to the same kind of self-righteous finger-pointing by those whom we have been talking about.

However, our goal in this post is simple: at least we in the Annex should be aware of our own intolerance before we turn our sights on others. That is the first step in changing business as usual in this so called "Premier Community." We need to look around and listen around to become aware of our own prejudices and the fact that we are not really aware of the real world outside the fences of our little enclave. Otherwise there will be no end to our being disrespected.