By Staff
City not showing much tolerance
Editor,
A rogue faction of ignorant and hypocritical Hartselle residents is making this city a laughing stock. (No, this time, it's not the school board or city council.) Hartselle is now being shamed by extremists who mock the Christian values so proudly and publicly espoused by the majority of it's residents. First, rumors about Wiccan practices at a Hartselle coffeehouse have caused the owners to lose business. In my own family, my son was accosted last week by some Hartselle youths calling us atheists, supposedly because I made a public joke about a true public joke: the junior high traffic system. Most recently, a nearby Catholic church was attacked by miscreants from Hartselle. To intelligent people, religious intolerance is not only unthinkable; it is illegal, and a violation of the principles on which this country was founded. Gossip, rumor-mongering, and attacks for religion's sake are not Christian behavior.They are the antithesis of such. Only fools condemn what they don't understand.
I attended St. Ann's (Annunciation of the Lord) Catholic School and Church as a child in the 70s. Even as a Protestant, I made lifetime friends there, and obtained a better education than my children are receiving in the renowned Hartselle public schools. All of these attacks are an embarrassing reflection on Hartselle. Witch hunts ended for the rest of society in the 1700s. Apparently, some citizens here in "The City of Southern Hospitality" need to enter the 21st century, and act like the Christians they claim to be.
Pamela A. Ramey
Hartselle