>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <0c7a01bf2619$2f5571f0$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: There he goes again.... >Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 08:33:39 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >You may recall Sheriff McDougall and his "Wake Up America! Before It's Too >Late!" diatribe. An article about him and his article was published in the >September 2, 1999, St. Petersburg Times (article below). > >Knowing the url of his diatribe would now be published in a newspaper, he >added a sort of cover diatribe to soften the blow. His subject? You guessed >it: drugs. His arguments, if that's what they can be called, are so off the >mark that they hardly need comment. > >His first line is particularly amusing coming from a Sheriff discussing the >Drug War, "In a healthy America we resolve our emotional differences with >debate instead of bullets." That's easy to say when you've got the bullets. > >Ah, well. You might want to drop a line to the Times asking why a >taxpayer-financed web site should print personal religious views, or just >give your view of the dangerous (but all too common) mixing of church and >state. > >Another subject for a letter: The Times states: "McDougall is locked in >another bitter fight with the Lee County Commission over the growing budget >for his nearly 1,000-member department." If there were no Drug War, half the >department would be unnecessary. > >letters@sptimes.com > >Enjoy, > >Peter > >------------ > >In a healthy America we resolve our emotional differences with debate >instead of bullets. As a society organized as a "Nation under God" we must >live by the rule of law regardless of our personal viewpoints about a >particular law or laws, but we do have the inalienable right, and perhaps >even a duty, to peacefully speak in opposition to those laws with which we >disagree. > > >From time to time throughout the year I will be placing new messages on the >web pertaining to other law enforcement and crime prevention matters >concerning our public safety. My current message deals with the liberal idea >of New Mexico Governor Gary E. Johnson, who favors the LEGALIZATION OF DRUGS >(including heroin and cocaine). > >Governor Johnson believes that the "War on Drugs" has become a real failure. >He believes the solution to the nation's drug problem includes legalization, >which will include controlling drugs, regulation of drugs, taxation of drugs >and better education. > >I believe that if we legalize illicit drugs because we feel we are not >winning the war, then we will have surrendered our birthright to the enemy >and capitulated our destiny as a nation. Every battle ever won for this >great nation was fought with tenacity and purpose. First of all we need to >once again put our faith in God, and then with His help implement a strategy >that will allow us to prevail over the forces of evil that continue to >envelop us as a nation. We are still a nation worth fighting and dying for. >So many young men and woman have given of their life's blood and their very >lives defending our shores and policing our neighborhoods. Surrendering to >this evil to preserve a drug culture would be tantamount to treason. > >Drug addicts threaten our public safety because they commit crimes under the >influence of mind-altering drugs. What difference will it make who gives >them the drugs? Pushers or the government? (Did gambling addiction cease >when state governments took over the gaming industry?) Governor Johnson >wants to tax the addict for his purchase of illicit drugs. Where does he >think the addict is getting his money? From his stock market portfolio? Get >real Governor, these street addicts are getting their money from all the >burglaries and armed robberies they commit, not to mention the human >suffering caused by their drunk driving, and domestic violence. Drugs cause >the same behavioral change regardless of the cost or legality. > >Don't listen to the voices of liberal freedom of choice (needle exchange) >politicians and groups who still have drug residue floating in their brains. >Listen to the voice of reason, listen to your conscience, and listen to God. > >Florida's drug control strategy has but one purpose, to protect our >citizens, especially our children from the dangers posed by illegal drugs by >advancing policies and programs that support prevention and education, >treatment, family values, and aggressive law enforcement. > >John J. McDougall >Sheriff > >------ > > >Keeping the peace, by God > >The sheriff who was almost a monk believes it his God-given duty to speak >out about abortion, "rabid" feminist groups and "United Nation one-world >government radicals." Here Sheriff John McDougall is in a jail under >construction. He has been using tents to avoid having to release prisoners >because of overcrowding. >[Times photo: John Pendygraft] >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >---- > > > >By TWILA DECKER > >© St. Petersburg Times, published November 2, 1999 > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >---- > >Lee County Sheriff John J. McDougall, who almost became a monk, has a remedy >for "diabolical forces of moral corruption working behind closed doors." >Hint: Look far to the right, then to the heavens. > >FORT MYERS -- Growing up in "Southie," an Irish Catholic neighborhood in >South Boston, John J. McDougall always wanted to be a police officer. He >admired the big cop in the crisp blue uniform who would stop a line of >traffic with his hand every day so little John could cross Dorchester Street >on his way to elementary school. > >But his upbringing in a devout family, most of whom worked on the docks for >minimum wage and never missed a Sunday Mass, drew him away from his law >enforcement dream and into a monastery. > >He gave up his earthly possessions and joined the Franciscan Order when he >was 20. For seven years, he studied as a monk, donning a habit and sandals, >devouring Scripture and promising a life of chastity, poverty and obedience. > >Just before he took his final vow, he decided his calling was more worldly: >He wanted to be a husband, a father and, just as important, the man he >dreamed of as a child, a man with a badge. > >A blunt missive > >Click on the official Web site for the Lee County Sheriff's Office, >http://www.sheriffleefl.org, and you find the usual pictures of missing >children, information about contacting a deputy and the latest hurricane >path. > >You also can call up an open letter from the sheriff. This one appeared >recently: > >"Is there any wonder why so many young people are committing such horrible >crimes against innocent victims, when we protect the rights of atheists, and >abolish the recognition of Almighty God in our classrooms?" > >Sheriff John J. McDougall goes on. > >"What many fail to see, however, are the diabolical forces of moral >corruption working feverishly, behind closed doors. They are out there every >day walking through the halls of congress, state legislatures and the >courts. The gay and lesbian coalitions, rabid feminist groups, United >Nations one-world government radicals, and the American Civil Liberties >Union all competing for power, and many using their political action >committee funds to influence elected officials to represent these parasitic >groups who proselytize and force us under the protection of law to tolerate >and accept their despicable conduct and agenda." > >To solve this crisis, the sheriff concludes, we must tell "Lord Jesus" we >are sorry for having turned our backs on him and his commandments. > >You can take the sheriff out of Southie, it would seem, but you can't take >the monk out of the sheriff. > >A citizen asks for help >For years, as Deputy McDougall worked his way up the ranks, he and his wife, >Gloria, worked behind the scenes in the anti-abortion movement, even taking >single mothers into their home. > >Mrs. McDougall joined friends keeping watch on abortion clinics, >particularly one owned by Dr. Ali Azima. To get a look inside, she says, she >posed as the sister of another protester, who pretended to be pregnant. > >"We wanted to find out what was going on there," she says. "We even set an >appointment." > >Mrs. McDougall says her friends fished a "baby" out of a trash bin behind >Azima's clinic and gave it a Christian burial. Mrs. McDougall attended. > >So when Azima complained to his sheriff in writing that he and his staff >were not getting adequate protection from the "barbarians" protesting >outside his clinic, the sheriff was well versed in the situation. Azima's >clinic had been dinner table conversation in the McDougall home for years. > >He did what he thinks any self-respecting sheriff should do. He wrote back >on official Lee County stationery that Azima was lucky he hadn't been >arrested for murder, and that the only reason he had not arrested Azima was >that the U.S. Supreme Court had "legalized baby killing" -- the same U.S. >Supreme Court, he hastened to add, that once legalized slavery. > >"Tell me, doctor, did those tiny defenseless babies feel threatened when you >ripped them out of their mother's womb?" the sheriff wrote. > >He said he would do everything in his power to "assist the protesters who >wish to protect the misguided mothers who come to your clinic of death." > >Two years later, McDougall remembers the exchange with a hint of a smile. >You think that letter was bad? he says. It was the tame version. His wife >made him tone down his first draft. > >McDougall says he doesn't let his heartfelt views interfere with his >official duties. At the request of a U.S. attorney concerned about >escalating violence at Azima's clinic, he held symposiums to educate his >deputies and the public about what federal law allows when it comes to >protesting. > >A few weeks later, his deputies gave two protesters at Azima's clinic a >warning for trespassing. The very protesters McDougall calls "unsung heroes" >responded by suing him in federal court, accusing the sheriff of violating >their constitutional rights. > >"It's ironic," says his secretary, Carol Myrick, "because if he wasn't >sheriff he'd be out there with them." > >'Scream it from the rooftops' > >McDougall is locked in another bitter fight with the Lee County Commission >over the growing budget for his nearly 1,000-member department. Meeting with >his senior staff to go over his latest battle with the commissioners, the >talk shifts to the Web site controversy. > >Many of the supervisors nod as if they're agreeing with a Sunday sermon as >McDougall expounds on Roe vs. Wade and the horror of 40-million babies >killed. Some of the senior staff wear WWJD bracelets, short for What Would >Jesus Do? > >Chief Deputy George Brightman tells the group that some deputies question >the propriety of McDougall's Web site letter. Brightman makes it clear that >he is not one of those doubters. > >"The sheriff says, "You ask me my viewpoint when I was running for sheriff, >but now that I am sheriff you don't want my views?' " Brightman says. > >McDougall tells his senior staff he is not judging people who are gay or >with whom he disagrees, just the groups that represent them. They want to do >such ungodly and destructive things as legalize same-sex marriage, teach >about homosexuality in the classrooms and take prayer out of the schools. > >"I am not the gay police," McDougall tells the group. "I don't judge people >who have had an abortion or are gay. I don't get into that part of the >equation." > >The Web site idea came to him driving home from Tallahassee. A judge had >just ruled unconstitutional a state law that required doctors to notify >parents of teenagers seeking abortions. McDougall was headed home after >dinner with the attorney who lost the case. > >He was still shaken by the shootings at Columbine High School and the Jewish >day care center in Los Angeles. He was haunted by the Lords of Chaos, a >teenage gang in his county whose leader gunned down a high school teacher >who threatened to report the gang for vandalism. > >"I just wanted to scream it from the rooftops: "We're on a slippery slope. >Society is dissolving.' " > >The Internet seemed the best place to scream. That's when he composed "Wake >Up America! Before It's Too Late!" > >Howard Simon, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, worries >about the message McDougall is sending his deputies, who deal with people >their boss rails about -- gays, feminists and all those who don't happen to >worship Jesus. > >Says Simon: "I can only imagine those people who are citizens of Lee County >who have different views, or a different religious heritage, or who may >happen to be gay, who have a bumper sticker indicating pro-choice or Planned >Parenthood, looking in their rearview mirror to see they are about to be >stopped by somebody from the Lee County Sheriff's Office." > > >From docks to civil duty > >Like most of the men in his family, McDougall's first job was working as a >longshoreman on the docks in Boston Harbor. The pay was $3 an hour. > >"I worked alongside my father and grandfather and uncles. We unloaded >everything from steel to monkey dung," he says. "We lived in the projects, >or what a lot of people called the ghettos. It was an Irish enclave, what >people call Southie." > >What they lacked in money they made up for in heritage and togetherness. His >grandparents, born in Ireland, lived with him, his six siblings and their >parents. > >"All my sisters know how to crochet because my grandmother taught them. We >know the Irish dance because my grandparents taught us," he says, the Boston >accent still clear. "There was always extended family around. That's what >our culture was about." > >After volunteering with a youth group that fed and clothed the homeless, >McDougall decided to become a monk, or what is known in the Franciscan Order >as a Friars Minor. > >During his final year of study, when young friars meditate on whether to >commit to living a life of seclusion forever, McDougall concluded it wasn't >for him. > >"I realized I was called to marriage and law enforcement," he says. "As a >child, when other kids talked about being a fireman or a cowboy, or >whatever, I always said I wanted to be a policeman. My mother will tell you >that." > >He started as a New Hampshire state trooper and later worked for a >prosecutor's narcotics unit in Massachusetts. > >He and Gloria moved to Florida in 1974 to try to save their 3-year-old son's >life. He had been hospitalized multiple times with severe asthma; the doctor >advised them to move someplace with a tropical climate. Their eldest >daughter, who weighed 2 pounds when she was born, also had lung problems. >They have four healthy children now, and two grandchildren. > >"To us God has just revealed himself in so many ways," Mrs. McDougall says. >"We had awful sick children; that's why we're in Florida. To us that's where >life is." > >The family settled in Fort Myers, where the Lee County Sheriff's Office was >hiring. They joined St. Francis Xavier church, where both of the McDougalls >are Eucharistic ministers. > >In 1985, a grand jury indicted the sheriff of neighboring Charlotte County >on charges related to the purchase of an airplane. Then-Gov. Bob Graham >appointed then-Capt. McDougall to fill in as sheriff. > >"It was controversial because I was a Republican and he was a Democrat," >McDougall says. > >The Charlotte sheriff was acquitted and returned to his job. McDougall went >back to Lee County with a taste of being the boss. > >When the Lee County sheriff announced he would retire in 1988, McDougall ran >for the job. > >The tourism folks fainted > >His first two terms, he was just another county sheriff. > >His coming out, as it were, was his NBC Today Show appearance in 1997. He >was on to talk about the court-ordered release of 500 Florida inmates. > >McDougall told about 5-million viewers that it had gotten too dangerous for >anyone to come to Florida. > >"I could have done the political thing," he says now. "I wasn't trying to >spit on the state of Florida. I was trying to tell the truth." > >His comments catapulted him into the limelight; two years later, he's still >there. > >Mrs. McDougall says her husband speaks out because the Catholic Church isn't >doing its part. > >"They should be doing this, preaching morals and about how we should live," >Mrs. McDougall says. "Sometimes the church is quiet when they should be more >vocal." > >Man from the monastery >The 57-year-old sheriff starts each day with Mass at 8 a.m. at the Church of >the Resurrection of Our Lord near the Sheriff's Office. > >"I get down on my knees and pray for God to give me the grace to make tough >decisions, to make the department safe, and I pray for all the prisoners and >the unborn babies," McDougall says, relaxing on a couch in his office. > >He is surrounded by cherished keepsakes of his three loves: his family, his >faith and law enforcement. > >Under a wall of plaques and commendations thanking him and his deputies for >catching murderers is a picture of Pope John Paul II. Nearby is a statue of >St. Francis, holding a sign: "Abortion. Big People Killing Little People." > >At St. Francis' feet, McDougall placed a tiny white sandal and a Post-it >note that says, "Where's the baby?" He says somebody left the sandal and >note behind on a church pew. > >His stance against the death penalty is less evident; he wrote to Texas Gov. >George W. Bush pleading for the life of Karla Faye Tucker, an ax murderer >who found God on death row. She was executed. > >How does McDougall reconcile his job with his religious belief that putting >people to death is as much of an affront to the sanctity of life as >abortion? He says his job is only to arrest people; what happens after that >is up to others. > >His "Wake Up America" letter has received about 25,000 Web hits, he says, >and thousands of e-mails. > >His secretary color-codes the responses. Two blue binders burst with >thousands of positive responses. A smaller black binder holds the negative >ones. > >"It's running about 80 to 20," McDougall says, adding that many of the >negative comments came from gays and lesbians, who misunderstood what he was >trying to say. > >Most of his outspokenness has surfaced since his last election. He realizes >next year's election will be the test of what voters think about him. He >will run in the same county that captured national headlines last year when >it began teaching a Bible course in one of its public high schools. > >"If I'm re-elected it will be by the grace of God. But I'm not looking to >spend four years trying to get re-elected to the next term." > >His secretary says she has gotten used to the controversy that shadows her >boss. "Whenever he says, "Carol, I've been thinking,' I say, "Wait a minute, >Sheriff, let me get an Excedrin.' " > >A Catholic who belongs to the same church as McDougall, Myrick says she >shares his views and finds his strong morals, which are as evident in his >home life as they are at his job, endearing. > >"He has a spine. He stands up for what he believes," she says. > >She recalls the Thomas Edison parade in February, honoring the town's most >famous resident. Chauffeured down the parade route in a patrol car, dressed >in uniform, the sheriff held an anti-abortion sign out his window. > >"I just shook my head and said, "He did it again,' " Myrick says. > >She thinks he's just being himself, naive sometimes about the reaction his >outspokenness provokes. "It's like he just came straight out of the >monastery." > >On McDougall's desk is a gift from Myrick, a picture of St. Michael, the >archangel of law enforcement. On the picture is an inscription: "There's a >battle going on here. Whose side are you on?" > > > > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: