More hate in Florida ... but this time, there's a difference

Perhaps you've read about the noxious hate speech in Gainesville, where radical Christianists have been encouraging their children to wear anti-Islam T-shirts to school and ranting about how they have a "right" to do this because it's merely an exercise of free speech. Well, there's plenty of hate to go around here in Florida, but you may be surprised to learn that this time, it appears to be against a Christian group. And you may be even more surprised to learn that this time, I'm on the Christian group's side.

This latest incident arises out of a controversy in Wakulla County, just south of Tallahassee, where a major road recently was renamed to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One former county commissioner and his wife, who apparently opposed the renaming, have hung a skeletal effigy in their yard and linked it to a current county commissioner, a member of the Wakulla Christian Coalition. And the Coalition was one of the driving forces behind the renaming.

Former Wakulla County commissioner Brian Langston and his wife, Laurie, who hung the decoration, call it a political statement. Jenny Jones, chair of the Wakulla Christian Coalition, says it borders on a hate crime. Coalition members mailed letters of complaint Aug. 19 to Wakulla Sheriff David Harvey, Department of Education Inspector General Ed Gordon, and Attorney General Bill McCollum.

Laurie Langston says her family has even received hate mail over the incident.

"To me, it is about like looking out my window and seeing a noose hanging in a tree," Jones said. The coalition recently successfully lobbied to get Lower Bridge Road renamed to Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Road.

The road was renamed earlier this month, but proponents overcame a number of hurdles to achieve their goal, including the stealing of signs honoring King. It appears, however, that the Langstons won't let the controversy go.

Now, I'm not going to come right out and accuse the Langstons of racism. Indeed, the object of their scorn, county commissioner Howard Kessler, is white. But the effigy (shown at right), coupled with the outcry over the renaming as shown in the comments to the above-linked articles, at least suggests that the Langstons and many of those opposed to the renaming have, um, less than honorable motives in doing so.

But this is pretty much par for the course in north Florida. Just as most people in these parts can't stand having a black president, they can't stand honoring another black man. But in this instance, whether it's a political statement or racism or something else altogether ... well, you make the call.