Last week, I posted about how Christians in Florida were harassing Monica Miller, the attorney for the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center who had successfully won her case to take down a giant Christian cross in a Pensacola public park.
There was one Facebook post in particular that was deeply troubling. It was made by a man named Lou Cobb, received more than 7,000 shares at the time I wrote about it, and has received nearly 14,000 shares in total since then.
Cobb posted two separate pictures of Miller along with her phone number at the AHA’s office. While that may be public information, it’s just inviting harassment.
What was more disturbing were all the reactions and responses to that post, ranging from comments about her looks to someone using gun emojis.
WEAR TV in Florida thought there was a story here worth following, so they got in touch with Lou Cobb. What the hell was wrong with this guy? His statements to the news station show exactly what you’d expect: A lot of ignorance and a complete lack of remorse.
“I never once insinuated hate or harm,” Cobb said.
He considers himself a Christian man.
…
“I thought she was a local attorney. Don’t patronize her. Make it hard for her to stay in Pensacola. If you don’t enjoy Pensacola, Interstate 10 runs two ways,” Cobb said.
…
Cobb has decided not to take his post down.
He said, “Right or wrong, stand behind it. If you’re wrong be the first to admit it. In this case here there’s no right or wrong to it. That was a personal belief and I put it out there. I’m man enough to stand behind it.“
A smarter person would’ve apologized. Lou Cobb isn’t a smart man.
Just because he didn’t mean to cause harm doesn’t mean anyone should let him off the hook. What part of calling Miller an “idiot,” urging people to “make her famous,” and calling for everyone to “run her out of town” was supposed to be anything but harmful?
Even if she was local, how petty is it for someone to go after an attorney because a judge ruled in her favor? There are defense attorneys who represent clients accused of murder. If a judge finds the client not guilty, it’s not a reason to condemn the lawyer. The whole point of the legal system, at least in theory, is to go where the facts lead. Just because Cobb doesn’t understand the First Amendment doesn’t mean Miller should be run out of town for winning her case. (If anything, it’s all the more reason to hire her. She got the job done.)
And those last remarks confirm every awful stereotype people have of men, don’t they? Cobb will stand behind his comments, dickish as they are, because removing his post would somehow be an attack on his manhood. He’s not just an asshole. He’s a proud asshole. In his mind, it’s okay to call for people to harass a female lawyer as long as it’s his “personal opinion.”
So to hell with his comment about how “there’s no right or wrong” to this. Yes there is. Lou is wrong. It’s that simple. And a real man would apologize. Actually, a more decent human being would just take down the post or update that post with an apology for what he did.
The only thing he said that made any sense was that he calls himself a Christian.
Atheists who advocate for church/state separation are used to Christians acting like this. Not all Christians act like this, obviously, but the people who threaten atheists are invariably followers of Jesus.
Miller told WEAR that people have shown their support by giving money to the AHA in Cobb’s name, which I think is just a wonderful way to respond. You can make a donation here; there’s a place on that page to explain your reason for the donation.
On a selfish side note, WEAR got a lot of their information from my post. They even used an image I created (and personally redacted) in their segment. Yet they gave no credit to this site for anything they presented. For shame…
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