Last week, Truth Wins Out started a petition that called on the Haywood County School District in Brownsville, Tenn., to fire high school principal Dorothy Bond for allegedly warning gay students that they were “not on God’s path.” Within hours, Bond resigned from her post.
The targets of our petition included school board members, such as Daniel Thornton. This is a letter Thornton sent back to one of the people who petitioned him to fire Bond:
Mr. _____,
Thank you for your email. I appreciate you taking the time to write about your concerns. Unfortunately, I don’t believe anything else will be done. Haywood County, Tennessee has many issues bigger than this and they haven’t been dealt with either. The good ole boy system is alive and well in our community and has created a haven for the select to operate. Several have tried for a long time. They leave, forced to shut up, or are killed. I wanted to respond to your email so that you know it was received. I also wanted to give you more insight into our community.
Respectfully,
Daniel Thornton
What exactly did he mean when he claimed, “Several have tried for a long time. They leave, forced to shut up, or are killed”?
Is this really happening in Haywood County? Are people being run of town and whacked for their beliefs?
I’m really not sure what to make of this letter, but it struck me as odd that a person on the school board would respond in such an alarming manner.
America is the most violent nation on earth. Why would this surprise you?
It’s not the most violent nation on earth. It’s just the most violent nation on earth that proclaims that it lives by the notions of peace, prosperity, and goodwill.
I’m not sure we can say the US is the most violent nation on earth–when you consider Iraq or some African countries I think we come in a little below that.
Sounds like he is being realistic and unusually candid, if I am reading this correctly.
I grew up in a small town in lower Alabama. I have no doubt some people who “cause trouble” can “disappear” in cities like this.
It’s someone, for once, being honest about the radical anti-gay lobby’s efforts to silence, bully, intimidate and censor pro-equality Americans and lock us out of the public square.
Have you been to TN? It’s a completely different world than most of the rest of the US. Memphis in particular is extremely dangerous to LGBT persons, but the entire state is an entrenchment of old world religious fundamentalism.
I would not go there, or the surrounding states for that matter, for all the tea in China. Been there, never going back for any reason whatsoever. The only thing that can save that state is a nuke.
I’ve been to Tenn. at least a dozen times. Evan Hurst lives in Memphis and seems to like it. And a state with Dollywood can’t be all that bad. :)
Wayne sometimes going to a place and being FROM there are so far apart they seem to be on different planets, especially in the South. Southerners, especially those in power, tend to know how to act in front of ‘company’ and that act is just that. How they conduct themselves with other ‘insiders’ is far different. There are plenty of places where you are an outsider if your ‘people’ haven’t lived there at least 10 generations. I grew up in one of those places. Trust me, it is completely possible that those who may want to change things are silenced in one way or another, especially if ‘changing things’ means changing those making the decisions on how things run around there.
You can also feel safe enough to bet that resignation had very little to do with a petition. My guess would be it was a convenient excuse to do what someone had been wanting to do for a long time.
Just a guess tho…