On a recent visit to the Creation Museum run by Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, journalist Jim Gaines and a group of scientists were met with a phalanx of gun-toting security guards, some with dogs. Where was Ham? He had declined to meet them, pleading a prior commitment. The message he left behind was clear: the guards with guns speak for me.
Gaines subsequently wrote a column about his visit, which was picked up by another DKos diarist, who occasionally writes for the same paper as Jim: the Bowling Green Daily News. Gaines got some support from readers of that diary, but the right-wingers continue to outnumber the liberals in letters to the editor. Clearly they're trying to shout down Gaines.
Right now he really needs our help. We're told for example, by a 'professional engineer' of Franklin, KY, that Gaines is a secular propagandist. The engineer also tells us that he's read Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein, and closes his letter by saying, 'If you want truth, read God's word!'. This is the same individual who likened Obama to Stalin a day after the inauguration in a letter to the editor published in the same paper:
Let those who believe in freedom and democracy forget not that we just elected an extremist with many Marxist ideas.... Remember, few Kentuckians think that Obama was a good choice and the last thing we need in Kentucky is someone who thinks that Obama is the answer. Stalin offered change.
And a college graduate and homeschooling mother of four (who thinks perhaps she's living in the midst of the Neronian persecutions) writes:
It seems to me that the message of the day is tolerance; yet the very ones who preach it refuse to tolerate Christianity.
As Gaines described in his original column, the show of force he encountered by the museum was motivated in part by the wacky belief, stated in a letter by a museum official to one of the prospective visitors, that the group of scientists might engage in 'overtly homosexual behavior'. (Maybe this official had taken the aforementioned homeschool mom's introductory civics class: Tolerating Hypocrisy 101'. Disclaimer: I was a homeschool mom, too.)
After reading the DKos call-to-action on 8/19 , I wrote to Gaines. As the earlier diarist pointed out---and I have to agree---it was surprising to see such a thoughtful, intelligent essay in the Bowling Green Daily News, a staunchly conservative paper.
But we're being outnumbered.
If we want to see more such exceptions to the rule, we need to shower the letters editor at BGDN with positive feedback concerning the Gaines column. Please consider writing a letter of support for Gaines (polite, please!) to letters@bgdailynews.com. Mention that you've read the original column and that you also applaud their publication of Jim's excellent response to his critics, published in today's issue.