Bandon Library Friends & Foundation Treasurer Tracy Hodson Sends Hateful Letter Supporting Religious Discrimination to the Coos Bay Mayor & Councilors
Letter from: Tracy Hodson
To: Coos Bay Mayor
Coos Bay City Council Members
January 4th 2023
Re: January 3rd meeting flag policy decision Dear Mayor and Councilors:
I cannot believe you caved in to that bully Rob Taylor, who is crowing about his victory today. You fell apart last night, thereby letting down the majority of your constituents because of an organized, ongoing effort to kill any progress in Coos County perpetrated by the tiny group Citizens Restoring Liberty, whose membership is mostly in Bandon (you were right about that), led by Rod Taylor (now, horrifically, a county commissioner), and Rob Taylor, who were the ones who brought the others to testify against the Pride flag. Rob isn’t even Christian, as he's said publicly many times; he was only there for the purpose of fomenting the discord you witnessed, which Is what feeds his ego. He is an amoral, opportunistic, professional trouble-maker, who has to get material for his podcast somehow, and he has announced that he will now travel to any Oregon city to fight for “equality,” which isn’t even something he believes in or supports. He and his cohort are working to bring about a Trumpist, Christian Nationalist Coos County. Rod Taylor wants to break Coos County from the rest of the state, and remake it in his image.
Earlier on the 3rd, Rod’s first day as a commissioner, he attempted to impose Christian prayers to open each commissioners meeting. We fought back against his desire for performative prayer, writing emails and speaking at the meeting despite Rod having filled the audience with his CRL fans. And Rod lost. The decision was made by John Sweet and Bob Main to have a minute of silence at the start of the meetings, which Rod responded to by threatening us with God’s anger (“Jesus said that if you deny me, my father will deny you.” was his statement). Rod wanted to perform his piety for his congregation of followers, and to force the other commissioners to accept something they shouldn’t do and which violates the separation of church and state foundational idea of this country, it was clearly a power move to fulfill the “There’s a new sheriff in town, and there are going to be some changes around here!” statements made during his campaign, and we all felt it absolutely could not succeed, it took two hours of sermons from the crowd and a few rational statements from those who opposed, including me, but we won. We weren’t going to let the Theocracy these people want start at the BOC. The only reason Rob didn’t threaten them was because he doesn’t want Satanists and witches to show up for their turn to pray, he said, so no prayers. The decision Sweet and Main made was brilliant, because now Rod has to sit there and pretend to pray, as do ail his people, whereas a straight No would have made him cry “religious persecution!!” and start all over again.
I realize the cost of litigation is a real thing, and Rob probably would have sued, but the first issue that would have come up is standing, I believe. Does Rob, as a resident of Bandon, have standing to sue the City of Coos Bay? He doesn’t live or work there. Wouldn’t he have to demonstrate harm? And as he’s not a Christian, would he even be considered a reasonable person to make the argument for the “Christian” flag being flown? And even if he got beyond that, does he have the energy and money and fortitude, not to mention attention span, to take it far? I highly doubt it. I can’t help but feel that you have let down the very people you were meant to serve, In order to avoid angering the nasty bully in the room. Your policy was clear, and you could have chosen to amend it to exclude religious flags, and could have stated that you will not take any more public commentary on it. couldn’t you? You don’t have to sit through month after month of these antics, I shouldn’t think, but I don’t really know. Maybe you really did the only thing you could, but it isn’t a terribly admirable course of action. If people don’t stand up to these psychological warfarers, what will happen to us as a society? We can’t even fly the Pride flag for 30 days a year without causing these people to lose their minds? And do we all give in again and again to threats and form policies to keep people like us in the queer community marginalized, where they think we belong? 1 was so thrilled about the flag up there! I wrote a letter to the editor of The World about it, and then went on to write two columns for the paper on issues that seem to be plaguing us even in 2023, despite the taunts and name-calling 1 got from Rob online. And lest you think I don’t understand economic risk, I live on Disability and part-time work as a bookkeeper, and my biggest client is Rod Taylor. I have been his bookkeeper for about 6 years now. and every stand against him risks my ability to survive, economically, as what I earn from his is 3/4 of my monthly income, without which I wouldn’t be able to afford my apartment. Yet 1 have stood up for my beliefs, and wrote emails to him and spoke against him at the BOC meeting, because it is what I believed was right to do. So far I haven't been fired, but it could happen at any moment if he feels 1 am more trouble than I’m worth.
I am not sad yet about the loss of the Pride flag, because I'm too angry. Rob also wants the commissioners to refuse funding to YouthERA because they’re a “leftist indoctrination BLM-supporting communist group.” And Rod doesn’t want to fund Health & Wellness because he knows better than any doctor what the “truth” is about the virus, the vaccine, and now even influenza vaccines! He sat up there and disseminated completely false information about both diseases, while his congregants applauded! And these are the people you want to reward with capitulation? A lawsuit is scary, but these two men are scarier. Your policy didn’t cause “division.” It pissed off one wolfish man who lives to fight and win against any cause he can find and then get a little support for.
I hope you will all think long and hard and decide that enough is enough and that you aren’t quite so easily blackmailed into doing things against your own beliefs and the promise to serve your actual constituents. Rob Taylor Is not one of them.
Tracy Hodson
Bandon
Coos Bay extends moratorium on flag policy | Local News | theworldlink.com