Vet Gets Suspended for "God Bless America"
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Shortly before Veterans Day, Boots Hawks, a retired U.S. Army veteran, who has worked for Dameron for ten years, found out the hard way that the company apparently doesn't approve of the "God bless" part.
Hawks had the line "God Bless America" under his company email signature. Supervisors told him the blessing had to go. He took it off, but told them that he would be speaking to an attorney. That apparently made him "insubordinate," "disruptive and disrespectful." When he got to work the next day, both his computer password and locker combination had been changed. He was told that he had been suspended for two days without pay.
Last week, the Pacific Justice Institute, an organization that defends citizens' civil rights and religious freedoms, took on his case. Their announcement that they had taken the case had the hospital adminstrator's phones ringing off the hook as members of the media sought to get comments. The press attention started an exercise in back-pedaling and the hospital decided that he wasn't insubordinate after all. They agreed to restore his lost wages but made no retractions on the charges that Hawks was "disruptive and disrespectful." The ban on "God Bless America" still stands.
Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, said in a press release, "We view the hospital’s response as a retreat from some of their earlier positions, but clearly they have a long way to go toward making this right. We will continue to press for fair and equal treatment of Mr. Hawks’ speech. No one—least of all a veteran—should be censored for fear that someone will be offended by their patriotism."
