Media Spotlight Keeps Racially Charged W. Va. Official Out Of a Job

Pamela Taylor is apparently back on the job as
director of a West Virginia non-profit agency,
despite some recent racist comments she made on Facebook.

12/27/16 UPDATE:

Well, it looks like old Pamela Taylor won't keep her job after all.

Thanks, I believe to that Charleston Gazette-Mail follow up story I describe below, the light of publicity was too much.

As described below, Taylor lost her job at a West Virginia agency for racist comments about Michelle Obama.

When the media spotlight faded, she was quietly reinstated.

But word got out. Now we find out that the West Virginia governor announced that Taylor won't be working at the non-profit center that uses state money and helps the poor.

The move, the gov said, was to ensure Taylor's now former employer follow non-discrimination rules.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

We see this all the time:

Someone is caught on social media,  like Facebook or Twitter, saying something awful, racist, wrong, or anything totally reprehensible.

The scene then plays out in a familiar way: There's a public outcry, the bad person is mocked, and then they lose their job or something else important to them.

Sometimes the reaction is overkill, sometimes it's not. But what happens when the media spotlight goes away?

As a West Virginia case proves, the offending person is often quietly reinstated and things go on as if they never happened.

According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Pamela Taylor, who last month referred to First Lady Michelle Obama in a Facebook post as "an ape in heels,"  is back on the job as Director at the non-profit Clay County Development Corp.

The Development Corp provides services to seniors and financial aid to low income people in the region.

The entire quote from Taylor on Facebook referred to the incoming First Lady Melania Trump: "It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a (sic) Ape in heels."

I'll leave it to you to decide who is more classy: Melanie Trump or Michelle Obama.

Still, the ape crack was pretty racist, though Taylor later said in an apology she isn't racist.

OK, then.

Anyway, Taylor's reinstatement came even after a stern letter from the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services warned the Development Corp that "any discrimination of staff or the customers (they) serve" could cause the agency to lose funding from state and federal agencies, the Gazette-Mail reported.

The First Lady remark didn't fit the criteria of discriminating against people they serve, but the Clay County Development Corp is clearly skating on thin ice.

After Taylor made her remarks, a local mayor, Beverly Whaling, responded to Taylor's Facebook post, "You made my day, Pam."

The mayor then resigned amid the outcry.

Before us liberals get too smug, some of us are pretty bad, too. Both Taylor and Whaling received numerous death threats after this news came out, and somebody mailed in a white powder to scare people associated with the two women.

I'm not sure why people send death threats to anyone who does something stupid, racists or wrong, but that's just wrong. At least as wrong or more so than Taylor's ugly racist comments.

As is always the case in these kinds of situations, the Clay County Development Corp refused to respond to any questions from the Gazette-Mail, because of the way their M.O. works: Shut the press, the media and the social media out and we can keep doing what we're doing, no matter how creepy the director is.

I'm sure many of the people the Clay County Development Corp serves are now pretty leery of this organization, especially racial minorities that need or want their help.

Still, I can't wait to read future Facebook posts from Taylor, now that she's back safe in her job.

Teen Does Typical Teen Dumb Thing; Pennsylvania Wants To Jail Him For Two Years.

This dumb teenager being dumb with
a statue in Pennsylvania might be locked up
for 2 years for being dumb.  

I swear, all 14 year olds do at least one incredibly dumb thing in the year they're at that age.

So it was in Pennsylvania recently when one 14 year old kid, decided it would be a Stupendously Brilliant idea to simulate oral sex with a statue of Jesus. (The kid was shirtless, but at least he kept his pants on.)

Then he posted photos of this exploit on Facebook.  Just to make everything worse.

What he did was insulting, not funny, and surely infuriating to the religious types out there. I'd punish him. Maybe pick up trash, write a well-researched essay on respecting people's property and religious affiliation, and tell him he's a jerk.

But I wouldn't send him to jail for two year. That seems a wee bit harsh for a stupid moment by a 14 year old.  If we sent every 14 year old to jail for being stupid here and there, we'd have to build a LOT more jails.

Yet according to Mother Jones, Pennsylvania wants to lock our 14 year old up in a juvenile detention facility for two years because of his misdeed.

He's charged with, according to Mother Jones "desecration of a venerated object, invoking a 1972 Pennsylvania statute that criminalizes 'defacing, damaging, polluting or otherwise physically mistreating  in a way the actor knows will outrage the sensibilities of person likely to observe or discover the action."

Mother Jones says an organization called Truth Wins Out, an LBGT advocacy organization, says the law is unconstitutional because it violates the establishment clause: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

They're also appealing on free speech grounds.

However, if Congress ever passed a law against being stupid, there'd be a lot of people in jail. Including, a dare say, most members of Congress.