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Friday, May. 29, 2009

Ex-Macon resident forced away from Air Force One after trying to meet Obama

A former Macon resident and current freelancer for the Macon-based Informer newspaper was dragged away from Air Force One shortly before President Obama arrived Thursday to depart Los Angeles International Airport.

Brenda Lee, who attended Ballard-Hudson High School, was trying to give the president a letter urging him “to take a stand for traditional marriage,” she told The Associated Press.

She got into an argument with a White House staffer as she waited for the president to pass by a media area, the AP reported. Airport security eventually carried her away but let her go after questioning her, the AP said. An AP photo shows security officials carrying her by her arms and feet.

Herbert Dennard, until recently the publisher for the Georgia Informer, which has changed its name to the Informer, said Lee is from the Macon area but now lives in California. She writes a column for the Informer, a monthly newspaper that focuses on the black community and routinely prints public officials’ salaries.

“She writes a lot of religious things and gives opinions on things from abortion to gay marriage,” Dennard said.

“She’s a very good person,” Dennard said. “She has very strong views on some moral issues. And I had talked to her, and she said she wanted to try to interview the president of the United States. I said, ‘if you can do it, fine.’ ”

Lee’s twin sister, Betty Slater, said Lee is 58. Lee grew up, for the most part, in Macon, but moved to California in 1970, Slater said. Slater declined to comment further.

Dennard said Lee is “not a danger to anybody; she just has some strong views.” He said she visits Macon from time to time and that he spoke to her about a week ago.

Lee’s column is called “The Bird’s Eye View” and her picture on the Web site shows her wearing a priest’s collar. Lee told the AP that she is a Roman Catholic priestess, but the church does not ordain women into the priesthood.

Lee’s Mother’s Day column was available Thursday on the Informer’s Web site, www.gainformer.com.

The column discusses the importance of mothers and Miss California’s stance on gay marriage, which recently made national news. Then the column says “gays are taking over” in America. In the column, she also wrote about priest molestation in the Catholic Church and ends the column by saying Obama should appoint a “GOD fearing judge” to the Supreme Court.

“There is no freedom of speech for heterosexuals or Christians,” she wrote.

Lee never got close to Obama on Thursday, and the incident occurred about 10 minutes before the president arrived at the airport to board Air Force One, the AP reported.

Obama had been in Los Angeles to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Beverly Hills.