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12/12/2008
The scourge of the earth? For reals? Gee, we're powerful
In apparent reaction to Wednesday's national "day without a gay" action, an unnamed employee of the University of Alabama at Birmingham reportedly sent out an email, using her official school account, wherein she said gays are "freaks.. the scourge of the earth.. And responsible for everything wrong in this sorry world." This from Birmingham's ABC3340:
"It's actually shocking in this day and time," says Jonathan Quinn, who is president of Central Alabama Pride. He is talking about an e-mail, sent from a UAB employee using a government-owned e-mail account. The author called homosexuals "freaks.. the scourge of the earth.. And responsible for everything wrong in this sorry world."
...UAB officials sent ABC3340 a statement regarding the incident saying, "We have just learned of this matter and we are looking into it. If such conduct occurred it would violate our acceptable use policy. We will follow-up appropriately."
We tried to follow-up with the e-mail's writer. "I have nothing else to say," she said and then hung up. It should be noted that she did not deny writing the letter...
UAB E-mail Contained Hate Speech? [ABC3340]
No word as to what role the unspecified employee plays at the university. Judging by our displayed skills, we could imagine her in either the misusing IT, "scourge of the world studies," or "acceptance as a foreign language" departments. Though if there's any justice in the world, she'll be immediately reassigned as the new Dean of Owning Up To And Apologizing For One's Nonsense.
Your thoughts
What really bothers me about this, other than the obvious problems with the email, is the way the reporters were shying away from calling this what it is. Everything's "some may consider" and "offensive to someone else" (as opposed to "offensive" full stop).
And the disciplinary action (which probably won't happen) would be for using the account for non-business purposes, not for sending hate mail from work.
Posted by: Matt Algren | Dec 12, 2008 12:01:02 PM
"And responsible for everything wrong in this sorry world."
I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel empowered.
Posted by: Mike in the Tundra | Dec 12, 2008 12:28:11 PM
New Strategy: Tell them, we don't get our rights, we don't fix all the problems we caused.
Posted by: RainbowPhoenix | Dec 12, 2008 1:26:39 PM
It most definitely violates the schools AUP. I recall the policy back when I worked at Brown University back in the early 90's
Can't be that much different.
Posted by: Tony P | Dec 12, 2008 4:13:13 PM
The person's name is Pam Gibson and she works in the Physiology Dept as an associate.
Posted by: NG | Dec 12, 2008 4:41:05 PM
Wow! Must be her time of the month! "Class... Can you say PMS?" I wonder what is soooooooo bad in her sorry-ass life that she has to blame us for it.
Maybe she skipped a day of her medication. Or a case of unchecked adult-onset Tourette's syndrome. Or maybe it's a "this is your brain on" joke: This is your brain after too many years of psychological abuse at the hands of the megalomaniacal hatemongering religious zealots.
On the other hand, "Scourge of the Earth" would look pretty kick-ass on a t-shirt.
Posted by: Dick Mills | Dec 12, 2008 8:10:39 PM
Ask and you shall receive! More or less. A nice simple Scourge t-shirt logo: http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/6149/herekp2.jpg
Feel free to use or anything of the sort. Non-copyright.
Posted by: voltaire_fabulous | Dec 13, 2008 4:43:38 PM
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