Steve Mensing, Editor
♦All eyes are on the Rowan County Commissioner meeting today to see if Commissioner Jon Barber makes good on his vow to be an “instrument of God” and defy a federal district court order to cease sectarian prayer. Or will the commissioners utilize an alternative plan employing chaplains representing various religious persuasions? If Commissioner Barber steps up and becomes an “instrument of God”, as he told an area TV station, he will join historical figure and abolitionist John Brown in making the claim of being an ”instrument of God”.
Of course Jon Barber may only face a day or two in a Federal “Tennis Club” and a $10,000 dollar fine, unlike John Brown’s hanging for a raid at Harper’s Ferry to forever be named in a civil war era song for “hanging from a sour apple tree”. At the Rowan Free Press, we certainly don’t want to see the headline: “Commissioner arrested by Federal Marshals at DSS ”Food Desert” Parking Lot. Fruit Truck Looted.”
Today could be another chapter in the exercise of free speech in America. The Rowan Free Press will be there, and video will be provided later in the day.
