Tom Hanks Will Decide Who's Un-American

It was two degrees this morning when I left Poca, West Virginia, for work at six. But that was not as cold as I felt after reading this at noon on the Fox News site: “Tom Hanks Says Mormon Supporters of Proposition 8 ‘Un-American’.”

Now I am willing to sacrifice my life, if necessary, to defend his right to spew whatever vile, hateful, ignorant, demented, loathsome, ugly and foolish remarks he may make.

But I also reserve my right to call his remarks vile, hateful, ignorant, demented, loathsome, ugly and foolish.

Readers can decide for themselves whether what he said is vile, hateful, ignorant, demented, loathsome, ugly and foolish.

In promoting a news series on HBO, Hanks said:

“The truth is this [his series] takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop 8 happen. There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here’s what happens now. A little bit of light can be shed and people can see who’s responsible and that can motivate the next go around of our self correcting constitution and hopefully we can move forward instead of backwards. So let’s have faith in not only the American, but Californian constitutional process.”

Excuse me, who died and put Tom Hanks in charge of deciding who is American and who is un-American?

Is he like a one-man Ellis Island who determines who can stay in this country?

Latter-day Saints have been around for nearly 2 centuries, as has anti-Mormon bigotry. I am not a Mormon. Never have been. Never will be. I like coffee too much. But I know bigotry when I see it.

Hey, I live in a state that keeps sending a former exalted cyclops in the KKK to the Senate.

Hanks must be the best actor out there, for on screen he comes off as a bright and funny, good-natured and wholesome man.

In real life, though, he sounds like he should be wearing white sheets and a hood.

The sun is out and the weather forecast calls for the temperatures to rise above freezing by Wednesday. Thursday, latest. February will follow January and before you know it, it will be July and 90 degrees in Poca.

But nothing will ever warm me again to Mr. Hanks. If that makes me un-American in his eyes, I shall consider it a compliment.