2 DEC 05: EQUALITY TIME
The Georgia Baptist Convention came and went, yet no one mentioned it. SOA Watch came and went, yet no one mentioned it. Perhaps controversial billboards are being overlooked nowadays, because too many drivers are busy talking on cell phones....
I only noticed the billboard a week ago, as I drove down Victory Drive - a sign with a soldier's picture saying: "I fight for your freedom.... and I am gay." This is a surprising sign for Columbus, since many residents doubted the city had any homosexual residents until "Ellen" showed up on TV.
The provocative billboard is the work of "Georgia Equality," a group fighting for homosexual causes. Its goal is to show homosexual people are ordinary workers, like you and me. The big test will come when a sign showing a Catholic priest goes up.
The Georgia Equality billboard went up three weeks ago, on Veterans Day - yet a Google news search shows about the only media mention of it has been in Southern Voice, the Atlanta "gay community" newspaper. When you see an "L" listed there, it probably does NOT stand for Libertarian.
The Southern Voice article from two weeks ago says the picture on the billboard is NOT a current soldier, but a retired one. Active military personnel are supposed to keep quiet about their sexuality. But if a Fort Benning G.I. prefers a First Avenue club to Victory Drive, that's probably a clue.
(Come to think of it, Fort Benning's list of banned businesses includes none of Columbus's "gay clubs." Why do you think that is? Do soldiers sort of "enforce" each other on things like that?)
Southern Voice reported Georgia Equality spent $2,200 to buy the Victory Drive billboard for a month. One sign company actually turned down the group in other parts of Georgia, which led to complaints about free speech violations. As if Georgia Equality can't put yard signs along the road, like politicians do?
Georgia Equality announced the Columbus billboard by bragging about how tens of thousands of people would see it. But that's misleading, because the sign is obscured by several trees around the Travel Inn Motel. And amazingly, the colors of the leaves are as flaming red as some homosexual dancers' shirts.
(Then again, that's probably how much of Columbus wants an issue like this -- hidden as far out of sight as possible....)
A delegation from Georgia Equality came to Columbus two weeks ago, but the Victory Drive billboard apparently never came up. Members were asked instead about the Georgia Baptist Convention's tension with Mercer University, over a homosexual support group. Political groups like Georgia Equality always feel more at home pointing fingers at others.
As I took a picture of the Georgia Equality billboard for your blog Thursday, I pointed it out to a man in military garb in an AutoZone parking lot. "Oh, H**L NO!" he and the woman with him exclaimed almost simultaneously. I suppose the Third Brigade hasn't seen billboards like this in Iraq.
"He doesn't even look gay," the woman added. I suppose she expected this retired soldier to wear a pink beret instead of a black one.
I met another soldier in a central Columbus store Thursday night, and he also didn't know about the controversial billboard. So this sign apparently is NOT the talk of Fort Benning - since the commanders haven't ordered soldiers to turn their heads away from it.
If so many people are either overlooking this billboard or ignorant of it, is Georgia Equality really accomplishing anything? Should it spend money on something people are more likely to notice - like a "God Bless Lesbians" day at South Commons?
BLOG UPDATE: The tale of the Old Cusseta Road bounty hunter came full-circle Thursday. Aggravated assault charges against Richard Ward were dropped - because the bail jumper he's accused of shooting never appeared as a witness in Recorder's Court! I guess his "running schedule" didn't quite allow for it.
Richard Ward explained outside Recorder's Court he's been a bounty hunter for five years, and was "just doing his job" when he tried to capture Scott Goodwin Tuesday. This job is so unusual, I haven't received any spam e-mail offering to train me in it.
Richard Ward said he's turned in about 200 wanted people this year, and doesn't plan to stop because of this case. So he doesn't plan to declare a mutiny on the bounty....
Ward compared himself to cable TV's best-known bounty hunter, declaring: "I'm the Dawg of the South!" That's the way to inspire D.J. Shockley, in this weekend's Southeastern Conference championship game.
(Oh yes - Richard Ward DOES carry a badge, showing he's a "bail enforcement officer." I'm not sure if he picked that up at the last Crimestoppers fundraiser or not.)
Richard Ward says if he has another chance, he'll try to capture Scott Goodwin again. Ward notes he found Goodwin, when nobody else did. Private investigators in Columbus could do this -- but they're too busy nowadays tracking down cheating spouses.
(I suppose you need a badge to do what Richard Ward does. In much of Hollywood, it would be called stalking.)
Now for other items from World AIDS Day - and I truly hope you didn't pass it on to anyone:
+ Jeff Meyer received the badge making him the new Columbus Fire Chief. Meyer had tough shoes to fill - since Roy Waters was a much more fitting name for fighting fires.
+ METRA staged a reenactment of the arrest of Rosa Parks, on the 50th anniversary of her refusal to go to the back of a Montgomery city bus. We've certainly come a long way since that protest. Why, only weeks ago WRCG began airing a local integrated talk show.
+ Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland came to Columbus, to announce federal money will study whether the city railroad yard should be moved. If all the shopping is heading toward Columbus Park Crossing, why not all the trains?
+ Instant Message to OfficeMax at Cross Country Plaza: It's Thursday night, and you have one person at the copying counter as four people wait for service. I guess you didn't add staff for the holiday season, huh?
COMING SOON: What's leaking in my bathtub.... and no, it's not water....
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