The Assault on Free Speech
By Alan
Caruba
We have
been witnessing a growing assault on free speech in America by the Left and too
often it is succeeding.
The demand
by members of the Rutgers University faculty that former Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice be disinvited to be the commencement speaker is the latest
example and her decision to withdraw, while graceful, was a victory for the
Left, the liberals for whom free speech exists only if it agrees with their
posturing about equality, diversity, and all forms of “justice” as defined only
by them.
Our
universities are showing ugly signs of censoring the speech of those they
invited to give a speech! Brandeis University recently withdrew its invitation
to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a human rights campaigner, because of her criticisms of
Islam. In response, she said of the slur on her reputation that, “More
deplorable is that an institution set up on the basis of religious freedom
should today so deeply betray its own founding principles.”
The forced
resignation of the co-founder and CEO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, because, years
before, he had made a donation to the California campaign to support
traditional marriage is another example. The Left has led the effort to
redefine this ancient institution of the union between a man and a woman while
supporting the demands of the nation’s gay and lesbian community.
Tearing
down the foundations of our society has long been a major goal of the Left.
The taping
of a private conversation between Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles
Clippers, and his mixed-race mistress who made it public led almost immediately
thereafter to the demand by the National Basketball Association that he divest
himself of ownership of the team. Yes, Sterling expressed racist views, but
free speech includes saying stupid things; things that are sure to offend
someone or some group. Saying them privately is very different from saying them
publicly. And that speech is protected by the First Amendment.
An
extension of the Sterling affair is the way any criticism of President Obama is
almost always attributed to the fact that he is black. He is, in fact, only
half black. His mother was white. The grandparents who raised him were white.
There is
plenty about which to criticize Obama and none of it has to do with the color
of his skin.
The level
and intensity of political correctness has been rising for years and I have
been worrying about it for a long time, particularly with the passage of “hate
crime” legislation that goes beyond actual acts based on hatred and includes
expressions that are deemed to be hatred.
Our educational
system now seeks to exclude anything—and I do mean anything—that might “offend”
someone or some group of people. A recent example of school officials who did
not want American flag t-shirts being worn during Cinco de Mayo should be
offensive to anyone who loves America. The holiday isn’t even a major one in
Mexico, but demonstrating patriotism is surely not an offense. It gets worse,
though, when the singing of Christmas carols are prohibited in a school, an
offense against the practice of Christianity and the “diversity” that the Left
is always demanding.
The genius
of America is its inclusion of all manner of minorities, religions, and points
of view. We have a Constitution that protects their rights and those of
everyone else. Putting limits on free expression is a danger to the nation and
that is what the Left has been trying to do for a very long time.
We are all
increasingly living in a nation where limits on everything we do, everything we
eat, everything we say are being dedicated by the federal government that
believes it exists to act on our behalf because, one must assume, it believes
it knows best. It does not.
The
federal government has been engaging in policies that are reducing our military
strength and security, imposing “Green” policies that are reducing access to
the affordable and extensive provision of energy, that is annually adding new
regulations by the thousands, that is seeking to make more and more of our landmass
federal property, that has a tax code that even the IRS can’t understand, that
keeps expanding control of our educational system for the purpose of
indoctrinating new generations to obey anything it says and does, and now
controls your health through a law that requires you purchase insurance you may
not want, cannot afford, and is filled with new taxes.
This drift
toward socialism is a threat to the freedoms we take for granted. It must be
reversed.
One piece
of good news is the recent decision by the Supreme Court that prayers at the
start of local council meetings may continue, declaring them part of a long
national tradition, thus thwarting the effort of atheist groups to keep people
from engaging in such prayers if they wish.
“Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or
the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government
for a redress of grievances.” – The First Amendment.
Those
rights will exist only so long as the people defend them. Fight anyone or any
group that seeks to undermine them. Whether you lose freedom overnight or by
its slow reduction, once lost it is likely lost forever.
And VOTE
to put people in office that will fight for you and for the rights the Left is
attempting to take from you.
© Alan
Caruba, 2014
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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens
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