A.G. Gancarski
If the HRO expansion passes, a turning point in the public discourse might have come from someone who tried to silence it.
It’s ironic, really, that white male opponents of the expansion of the Jacksonville Human Rights Ordinance objected to locating the so-called community conversations in what they called “high-crime neighborhoods.”
The worry was that those delicate flowers who might oppose extending basic protections to the LGBT community might be somehow imperiled by going to those high-crime neighborhoods that, said one prominent merchant of intolerance, were “completely dark.”
Ironic, because the danger didn’t come from the people who live by FSCJ’s downtown campus, or from those who live by Edward Waters College.
Rather, the one major danger that has been posited, regarding the community conversations so far, is from some callow kid from Arlington.
The Florida Times-Union reports that the Jacksonville HRO debate had its first threat of physical violence recently, and it’s horrifying.
Benjamin Manses, a 25-year-old, called a T-U reporter and threatened to bomb the next HRO community meeting.
Then he told the sheriff’s office, according to the T-U report, that he was drunk and he didn’t mean it.
He was arrested on charges of threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device. And honestly, he got off really easily.
Very often a bomb threat such as this, in a place that would have a dense concentration of people and public officials, would be judged to be domestic terrorism (which should be an especially salient point in the post-Dylann Roof era).
To Manses? It’s a joke.
And that illustrates the problem that LGBT people face daily.
Many of them, too many, have had to wrestle with the nonnegotiable reality of facing discrimination and excoriation, and worse, for differing from the heteronormative paradigm, one reinforced by popular culture and laughable misreadings and misapplications of theology.
The idea of a bomb threat is obvious: to put the idea of danger in someone’s mind, to perhaps silence people who might come out and speak with conviction and truth about what they experience and why they deserve the protections that society in theory guarantees them.
We’ve seen quite a few politicians hold forth about the danger posed by Syrian refugees.
Well, what about this dude?
He’s white. He went to Duval schools, lives in Arlington, and is about as Muslim as the guys on Duck Dynasty.
He wants the people who grew up around him to live in fear of participating in the civil discourse that is, in a perfect world, a prerequisite to people who contribute great and meaningful things to our community having the same prerogatives that straight people take for granted.
Where is the Liberty Counsel on this?
What will Jacksonville’s leaders have to say?
Will those who make their political bones from propagandizing against LGBT people having basic protections address this, condemn this, and say that it is wrong?
Will those who oppose HRO expansion see that this incident illustrates in sharp relief that even though most people are not capriciously intolerant there are some nut jobs who are willing to exploit any power imbalance for their own ends?
Or will they, instead, take it at face value that this man was “drunk” and “didn’t mean it”?
Jacksonville has seen terror before: bomb threats during the days of court-ordered school integration; the Axe Handle Saturday attacks.
We also have paid tribute to terrorists: Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, for example.
We are seeing yet again that human nature does not change.
If we are intellectually honest, we see again that civil society must protect all of its law-abiding citizens against the depredations of those who would do them harm.
Do we believe in civil society? Or are we yet again going to fall for the fabrications and the false equivalencies of those who would abridge it?
Civil protections, it can’t be stressed enough, must protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.
That’s what the HRO expansion is about. It’s not about endorsing “special rights.” It’s about ensuring universal and equal protection.
3 comments
Rev. Dr. Harvey Carr
November 21, 2015 at 3:47 am
More proof of danger and discrimination. During hearing 3 years ago I was the 1st to speak in favor of an HRO in Jacksonville. My orientation was never mentioned or discussed as that is nobody’s business but mine and is why we call it a private life. Yet within 24 hours my unlisted phone number and addressthat had been required by city forms to speak had been obtained and multiple threatening phone calls left on my home phone. Every member of city council was advised and I refused to go to public media and give credence or encourgae others to violence. The 2nd hearing, as I was walking in the block next to City Hall, a black pick-up truck pulled to the curb, the driver leaned out the window of the passenger side, cocked his fingers like a gun and screamed “You had better get right with God” then lifted those “gun fingers” towards his lips as if blwoing away smoke. I was then offered armed police protection by Councilman Warren Jones, but I declined and the church I pastored requested a body guard. So, I was accompanied by a bodyguard for months and policemen stood in City Hall Chambers leaned against wall opposite where I sat during all remaining hearings. Without even knowing if I were LGBT or not, people threatened my life simply for standing and speaking for equality. I experienced death threats merely for taking a stand. Yes, discriminaiton is alive in Jacksonville.
Tim Dewey
November 21, 2015 at 9:54 am
Any one familiar with the Latin phrase In vino veritas? Translates to in wine is truth, meaning people tend to be more honest when they are drunk.
HappyJ
November 22, 2015 at 2:29 pm
Your assumptions are outstanding when you have no idea of his motivation in this threat. Because he is white and went to school in Duval, it follows that he is a racist and anti-Muslim and also anti-gay?
Your assumptions are outstanding when you have no idea of his motivation in this threat. Because he is white and went to school in Duval, it follows that he is a racist and anti-Muslim and also anti-gay?
Manses Productions @BenManses 30 Apr 2013 Being gay is not a crime, it is no reflection on someone’s personality. Other athletes kill, rape, kill animals, etc. (…cont)(cont…) But it’s a big deal if someone likes men???
I no longer consider myself a liberal, despite being very liberal and a part of the LGB community, because I am so disturbed by what the left has become. I have nothing in common with the right and probably never will, but it is the left that has become king of tyranny, totally invested in the censorious shutting down of social dialogue by any means necessary. Discussion of real issues is too uncomfortable and challenging, so calling everyone with different views “bullies” or “bigots” will do instead. You made this guy into a ringwing boogie man who hates darkies and Muslims and gays because on his skin and where he went to school. I don’t know who he is or why he did this, but I would not be surprised if he is indeed a liberal idiot who called in a bomb threat because liberals will no longer abide public discourse.
“He wants the people who grew up around him to live in fear of participating in the civil discourse that is, in a perfect world, a prerequisite to people who contribute great and meaningful things to our community having the same prerogatives that straight people take for granted.”
If it turns out that he is a liberal PC bro, the assumptions you made about his motivations are loaded with irony as well. I guess he won’t be a “bigot” or “bully” anymore in your in your opinion though, because a “bully” or “bigot” is someone that disagrees with you. This is the most disturbing and dangerous “liberal” political tactic in our current milieu. Your post was an excellent example of this type of behavior- why sort through facts and various viewpoints when you can completely shut down discussion by calling someoBeing gay is not a crime, it is no reflection on someone’s personality. Other athletes kill, rape, kill animals, etc. (…cont)(cont…) But it’s a big deal if someone likes men??? I am very socially liberal and a sexual minority, but I no longer consider myself a liberal because I am so disturbed by what the left has become. I have nothing in common with the right and probably never will, but it is the left that has become king of tyranny, totally invested in the censorious shutting down of dialogue by any means necessary. Discussion of real issues is too uncomfortable and challenging, so calling everyone with different views “bullies” or “bigots” will do instead. Look at the smear job you did on this guy. You made him into a ringwing boogie man who hates darkies and Muslims and gays because on his white skin and where he went to school. I don’t know who he is or why he did this, but I would not be surprised if he is indeed a liberal idiot who called in a bomb threat because liberals will no longer abide public discourse. “He wants the people who grew up around him to live in fear of participating in the civil discourse that is, in a perfect world, a prerequisite to people who contribute great and meaningful things to our community having the same prerogatives that straight people take for granted.” If it turns out that he is a liberal PC bro, the assumptions you made about his motivations are loaded with irony as well. I guess he won’t be a “bigot” or “bully” anymore though, because a “bully” or “bigot” is someone that disagrees with your position. This is the most disturbing and dangerous “liberal” political tactic in our current milieu.
Your post was an excellent example of this type of new left behavior- why bother with facts and discussion? Easier and more effective to call someone a hateful racist bigot transphobe who needs to check all of their privileges because you have already decided who/what they are.
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