In the past week, a total of
nine rural Alabama Baptist churches were set ablaze by an unkown arsonist.
Maybe because these acts of destruction are not obviously racially motivated, the liberal blog-o-rama hasn't been focusing on this story to any great degree. I'm sure there are some who have, but not in any prominent way.
To me, this is a sign of serious dysfunction in our land. And we have to stand up to it and fight it -- no matter who is responsible and why they have done it.
If these were all black churches, I suspect that these attacks would be front and center on the major blogs. But because there is not obvious racial motive involved (most of the destroyed churches served predominantly white worshippers), I sense a degree of reticence about this that bothers me.
I, therefore, propose that we, as a community, set up a reward fund to supplement the ATF and the State of Alabama's $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest those responsible for these crimes.
We should either set up a seperate fund, or find a means to contribute directly to the reward fund via the ATF.
I don't pretend to have the technical expertise to do it. Hopefully someone will take up this cause and post regular updates.
The politics of this are not what iss motivating me. But, sadly, there are already signs that the rightwingers and the media are going to use these acts of arson to bludgeon liberals with.
Chris Matthews, for example, shamelessly speculated that a "liberal person, who's gay," might be guilty of these attacks.
And, I am sure he is not the only one.
It is only a matter of time before this becomes a major rightwing talking point.
But, even if it never happesns, we should do what we can to stop these attacks and help out the authorities. Let's demonstrate that we can do more than just funnel money to politocal candidates. We did a good job of raising money for Katrina victims last year, so this should be a piece of cake.
What do you all say? And can someone set up a reward fund?