The mayor of Atlanta scrolled through the messages he has received over the last 30 days, demanding that he preserve the job of the highly decorated fire chief he had just fired. “Look at this. I’m an anti-Christ, I’m a Muslim,” a clearly angry Reed said.
For the record, the mayor is a lifelong Methodist.
Reed pulled up one brief email. The operative word was “perversion.” Then he returned to scrolling, moving the cursor down and down. “Look how long it runs. This is crazy,” he said. Dozens became scores became hundreds, perhaps even thousands.
On the surface, the firing of Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, author of a self-published religious book that condemned homosexuality, was a hardcore personnel issue, albeit one that became intensely personal for the two men involved.
The mayor said his fire chief had failed to get the formal — and required — city approval necessary before publishing the book. More important, Reed told those gathered, a man who reported directly to the mayor had not discussed the contents of the book with his boss prior to publication.
