Facebook has a group called "Fuck The Troops" and a group of good intentioned people are trying to get them removed by signing a petition. Let me start with the fact that I love our servicemen and hate the idea that someone would wish them anything but the very best. In no way could I ever belong to or support a group like that.
With that said, please resist the good intention to limit the freedom of speech no matter how good the cause is against the speaker. We have free speech to be able to redress the wrongs of our Government at any level. We started our country with that right and have fought in several ways to defend our right to free speech. I worry that the Law of Unintended Consequences might set in if we work to quash any group.
How do you think I felt when that great unwashed mass of college students shouted "Hell No, We Won't Go!" Yes, I felt bad, but I knew that I was fighting for their right to continue to say it. When someone burns my flag does it break my heart. Hell Yes, but it is their right to protest for their cause and do so. Oh, by the way don't try to burn my flag or we will tangle but, burn yours and its OK by me.
Every time I turn a corner and there is the Phelps bunch on the corner with a sign that says, "God Hates Fags" I wince with what I consider stupid and hate speech combined. Would I let you stop that? Not for a minute. If you want to go to a Military Funeral and stand between this stupidity and the families, I will be there with you. Would I join a vigilante group meaning the Phelp's harm- NO. Yes, I want to rush over there and tear down the signs but it is their right.
The slope downhill from free speech is so steep and slippery that I don't want anyone to start down the hill and stop any part of free speech. I fear the time when a majority party tells a minority party they do not have their right to free speech for whatever reason. I wonder if I might be that minority party someday. We should all wince when Nancy Pelosi calls us Nazi's when we disagree with her. I don't advocate censoring a private citizen saying about anything but as she is the Leading Democrat she should be careful. read on and I'll tell you why.
You have read here time after time that I love my country but fear my Government. Give any government the power to start removing the rights of people and time after time they have. For the record, in Germany it was at first (1933-35) the intention to start putting the mentality incompetent people, Romani (Gypsies) and the black mulattoes in custody to preserve the purity of the Arian race. Soon thereafter they began to sterilize those members of the groups in custody and opened Dachau to hold the prisoners in custody. Homosexuals were next and fairly soon priests were declared homosexuals. They went from holding to extermination. That was how the final solution began and I don't have any ides how many people were put to death. Oh, of course not here in the USA. The KKK didn't lynch anyone with the approval of the local Sheriff. Yes, and Eisenhower didn't have to send the Active Army and federalize the Arkansas National Guard in Little Rock either. The Police in 1968 at the Detroit Democratic Convention just encouraged the protestors to go home. (With billy clubs and mass arrest)
Will free speech fall victim to the banning of hate speech and then that category get broadened until all speech is taken away? I am not laughing. I am shouting that whatever you do do not give anyone the right to start taking away any or all of our free speech. What would be next, our right to assembly as a part of free speech? Our right to bear arms? Not on my watch.
MUD
COL (Ret)
Well said, MUD! And, every slope is slippery. It's always best to stay at the top, even if there are idiots of every stripe at the top with you...
ReplyDelete...when they start to tumble, the dirt they scrape out on the way down goes with 'em, and makes it less safe for the rest.