Hater of The Year Alden McLaughlin; The Minister With A Warped Vision

Perpetuating hatred, fear and small-mindedeness is no easy feat in the year 2008 but Alden McLaughlin pulls it off with the style and grace usually reserved for someone wearing ice skates and doing double axels and triple toe loops.

So hats off to Alden! Here’s to 500 more years of isolationist idiocy and paranoid hatred in Cayman!

When you’re elected Person of The Year by a substandard, unscrupulous and unethical publisher of a local fish wrap, how do you follow that up? You become the poster child for fear and hatred, which is why I’m proud to name Alden McLaughlin the Cayblogger Hater of The Year for 2008.

In a day and age when we are making remarkable strides forward in an effort to cure HIV/AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer’s and even the common cold, Alden has proven that we are no closer to curing fear-based bigotry and hatred than we are landing a man on the sun.

Alden McLaughlin is a small-minded coward who hates people just, well… just because. Here’s proof from today’s Compass.

“The concern that everyone seems to have that somehow this is going to force the recognition of civil unions in the Cayman Islands…that fear needs to be addressed,” he said. “When we talk about the need to get the United Kingdom to agree to restrict its ability to legislate for the Cayman Islands, to extend legislation to the Cayman Islands; this is a perfect example of what can happen if we do not achieve that objective.”

"Everyone" doesn't have this concern Alden, but you are correct in one aspect – it IS a perfect example of what can happen if you get the UK to restrict its ability to legislate for the Cayman Islands. You end up with a scared and bigoted population filled with unfounded fear and hatred, lead by a bigot.

It’s sad. The Cayman Islands are the self-proclaimed “gem of the Caribbean.” A gem with one major flaw: fear-based hatred. Thank you Alden for waving your hate flag high and proud.

People in Cayman are running scared. “Scared of what?” you ask? Rising gas prices? No. A stale tourism product? Wrong again. Lackluster education system, mediocre health care system, softening economy and real estate market? No, no, no and no again.

People in Cayman are afraid of gay people. The “leader” of government business even admitted he is concerned about civil unions “sneaking into local law” which begs the question: If our legislators are doing their jobs correctly, how do things “sneak” in to local law? Have we learned nothing from CINICO and the HSA?

Either way, it’s all about misplaced and misguided fear. Cayman isn’t afraid of drunk drivers, people with knives or guns, spousal abuse, child abuse, unemployment, employers failing to provide health care and pensions, political corruption, bad roads, or hurricanes. Cayman is afraid of gay people. Gay people!

And for good reason, because as we all know gay people engage in abhorrent behaviour that threatens our very way of living and could tear apart the beautiful tapestry of these Islands. They do disgusting stuff like go to work, go home, go out to restaurants, go to church, cook and serve food, handle financial transactions in our banks, handle legal matters in our law firms. They work in our government. And, yes, some even go so low as to cut our hair. God help us, these gay people are everywhere!

They must be stopped! How can we do that? We keep them from reproducing. How can we do THAT? We keep them from getting married, because as we well know if you’re not married you can’t have babies - right? Ask anyone in West Bay.

No civil unions equals no gay marriages equals no gay babies equals a clean and safe Cayman. Problem solved Heil Alden!

It’s amazing when you think about it. In ten years you can train someone to be a doctor, but in 500 years Cayman can’t seem to figure out how to break an attitude of blanket hatred against a demographic that is here, has been here and will be here.

And before the God Squad starts filling my in box with passages from The Bible I have heard you and I understand your reasoning. But I would be willing to bet (and I’m no biblical scholar) that there are more instances of The Bible telling us to love one another than there are telling us homosexuality is wrong. There are more instances of The Bible telling us to spread the light – not the hatred and fear. There are more instances of The Bible telling us to hold love near and dear to our hearts – for where love exists there is no fear; and where fear exists there is no love.

If you are truly faithful and God-fearing creatures you will embrace love, spread love and live a life of love – by example – and let your actions be the light that illuminates your path. Perhaps you will come to realize that this is not a case of who’s right and who’s wrong – it’s a case of who cares and why?

And the people who care the most are the people who have the most fear and the most hate – and the most to lose; or so they think.

We don’t need to ban civil unions, we need to ban uncivil servants who spread fear and hatred under the guise of protecting Cayman from something that isn’t a threat to it. We need to ban stupid people who try to convince us they’re smart based solely on their societal and professional position and not on their education, experience or tolerance.

We need to ban people who use fear and hatred to ostracize and discriminate against others based solely on some misguided notion that they are somehow better at being human beings.

And we need to ban people like Alden McLaughlin who choose to cure fear and hatred by making it legal.

So the Cayman Islands will not be forced to honour same sex civil unions… hardly surprising given the large number of heterosexuals who fail to honour their marriage vows.

Comments

[lb]

could not agree more.

[Lachlan MacTavish]

The ignoring and lack of understanding of history and how the combination of B&B's and expats created Cayman could lead Cayman to a Bahamas JA society position. This along with the hardliner men of the cloth spewing narrow sighted antiquated beliefs creates a third world image of Cayman

____

COULDN'T AGREE MORE LACH. NO ONE SEEMS CONTENTED TO LIVE, LAUGH AND LOVE BUT RATHER TO MAKE IT A LIFE MISSION TO IMPOSE UPON OTHERS A WAY OF LIVING OR BELIEVING.
AS ONE WHO TRAVELS THE WORLD I CAN TELL YOU THAT CAYMAN'S IMAGE IS NOT AS SPARKLING AS THOSE IN CAYMAN WILL TELL YOU IT IS.
THANKS FOR THE COMMENT - rtm

[Paulo]

Spot on sir