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“All conservatives
are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or
nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can
only, like invalids, act on the defensive.”
~~ Ralph Waldo
Emerson
As
if we needed yet one more shudderingly repulsive account of a Republican who is
virulently anti-gay by day and an abusive pedophile by night...
But there Jim West is --
still squatting in the mayor's office, still holding all of Spokane, Washington,
hostage despite unanimous calls for his resignation from citizens, business
leaders, the Chamber of Commerce and, at long last, from even his own City
Council. A defiant West maintains that he is being persecuted by those who
accuse him of molestation and by
Spokane's newspaper,
which broke the story on May 5 after a lengthy and in-depth investigation.
West denies allegations that he sexually molested two boys in the 1970s when he
was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout Leader, but admitted that others would
probably "pile on" because of his power and importance. The boys -- men now --
also accuse a close friend of West's of abuse. David Hahn, who was a deputy
sheriff and co-scoutmaster with West, committed suicide in 1981 during a
sheriff's department internal investigation of molestation. Those files, which
Spokane's sheriff said at first were "shredded", then "lost", have now been
"found" and turned over to investigators.
Although West readily admits using City computers to
hook up
with
young men and boys
on gay websites, he told Matt Lauer on NBC's The Today Show on May 31
that he has done nothing illegal by offering jobs and prizes to those he met
there.
However, Ryan M. Oelrich, a 24-year-old who is openly gay and heads a gay youth
organization in Spokane, thinks otherwise. Oelrich was appointed by West to the
city's Human Rights Commission in April 2004, but says he didn't know at the
time that West was "Cobra82nd" or "RightBi-Guy" with whom he chatted on Gay.com.
While on the commission, Oelrich said he rebuffed a series of sexually explicit
online advances from West. He said West "offered me $300 cash if I'd swim naked
with him in my swimming pool." Oelrich said he considered West's offer "totally
inappropriate," and he resigned from the commission. He says he knows of five or
six other young gay men in the city who received "inappropriate sexual advances"
from West, and that two of them were offered City Hall jobs.
Is West gay or anti-gay? In 1986, when he was in the state legislature, West and
14 other Republicans sponsored a bill that would have barred gay men and
lesbians from working in schools or daycare centers as well as in some state
agencies. West is so adamantly opposed to teens having sex that, in 1990, he
proposed such hi-jinks be criminalized. He told Lauer that he voted the way
those in his district told him to vote, and that his own feelings or how he
conducted his private life were not involved.
Like so many of his peers, West can't seem to decide who, or what, he is. At
first, he claimed he's being destroyed because he's gay. Then, he decided he
isn't gay after all, but admits to being merely "bisexual". Finally, West
concluded that this whole ball of wax is descending on him because -- he's a
conservative.
Like he explained to Lauer, "You know, I'm a conservative, you know. I'm not a
closet liberal pretending to be a conservative. I'm a conservative. And what's
wrong with somebody who has what's called an alternative lifestyle or an
alternative sexual orientation being a conservative? Can a gay or bisexual
person be conservative? Can a black person be conservative? Can a Hispanic
person be conservative? I think they can."
The problem with West and far too many other Republicans is not that they're
gay, nor even that they're conservative. The problem is they're perverted;
twisted, corrupt. The problem is they're stalking our children, mostly from
lower-income, often one-parent families -- street children who can be
intimidated, controlled and tossed aside, their lives damaged beyond repair. The
most reprehensible of them prey on their own children, whose terrible
pain-wracked silence is almost always ensured.
They're everywhere. Pompous, dead-eyed, and devilishly self-righteous, they
appear to be obsessed with that which they most abhor -- pornography and sexual
aberration. Being neither a psychologist nor a Republican, I can only guess that
the guilt resulting from these poor creatures fighting to repress normal sexual
urges is what drives them into deviancy -- is what makes them so insanely
religious.
And that religion gives them cover. When West had the audacity to show up at a
Leadership Prayer Breakfast last week despite allegations of child molestation
and abuse of his office, the Spokesman Review
reported
that he "was immediately showered with handshakes, hugs and words of
encouragement.
"I love our mayor, and I know God's working on him," said Stephy Nobles-Beans,
assistant pastor of the Church of Berachah. "We've all sinned. Who are we to try
and hold him accountable? Who are we to ask him to publicly apologize? Only God
can do that."
Yeah? Well, maybe so, Brother Beans, but -- God forbid -- if West sodomizes your
child, or a child in your congregation, in the next two-and-a-half years he's
determined to hang onto his office, I suspect it's possible you'd wish you had
held him accountable.
What child is more important than any other? Their names, Brother Beans, even if
you don't care, are
Robert Galliher
and
Michael Grant
-- two kids abused by your mayor who paid them for their "services" with small
packets of marijuana -- two kids whose lives were changed forever, destroyed
forever, because of Jim West's perverted lust.
As I write this, a
petition to recall West
has been certified by the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. However,
by the time that process wends its way through the court and after appeals, if
any, are filed and considered, West could well have served his remaining tenure.
Even if West resigns, his grotesque crimes must not be glossed over. West must
be held accountable. They
ALL
must be held accountable.
Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma freelance writer and a former
civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular
contributor for a variety of Internet sites. Contact her at:
rsamples@sirinet.net. © 2005 Sheila Samples
Other Articles by
Sheila Samples
*
John
Bolton: The Wrong Man
*
We Are
Very Good Drivers
* They
Were Young Once, and Fit
* A
Pornographic Celebration of Death
*
Super Duper George Bush
*
Three Women -- The Roads They Travel
* Butt
Prints in the Sand
* A
Kick in the Pants
* Oh
Lord, Ain't it Hard...
* The
Last Man to Concede
*
Bring Them Home . . . Sooner Rather Than Later
*
Best Way to "Support the Troops" is to Bring Them Home
*
“Mr. President” de la Mancha
*
Stinky and the Vulcans
*
Haunted Empire
* The
Last Battle
*
Pre-emptive Pie-Hole Policy Not an Option
*
Freedom to Fascism -- A Bumpy Ride
*
When the Fiends Cry "Kill"
*
Like Dogs in the Night
*
Blame the Terrorists Behind That Tree!
* Open
Letter to CNN
* I
Know You Are But What Am I?
*
It's the Questions Stupid!
*
Truth and Freedom, Slip-Sliding Away
*
Playing the CYA Game
*
My Master's House
*
If Royko Were Here . . . On Going Nowhere With the 9/11 Commission
* It
Takes a Nitwit
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