Dear Editor,
“If Liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell
Activists interrupted Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at a rally in Seattle last year, stopping the politician from speaking at the first of two engagements he attended.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump encountered more violence on the campaign trail this week, one day after violence forced Trump to cancel a rally in Chicago. A rally in Missouri later Saturday evening was also interrupted numerous times by protesters.
The idea of freedom of religion, enshrined in the First Amendment, is now under serious attack on college campuses by political correctness.
The three items above were pulled off the Internet.
Watching newscasts, there were people in Chicago carrying signs referring to Donald Trump as a Nazi, a racist and using various other slurs.
Those who deprived Donald Trump the right to speak are much closer to being Nazis than he is. It is the same with those who broke up the Bernie Sanders event. I am no fan of Sanders or Trump, but as long as this is America, each has a right to speak his piece.
Free speech in the public square is the bedrock of our Republic. Every American has a right to speak openly without fear of slander or reprisals. That includes not only in the public square but on college campuses or anywhere else. If the right to free speech is threatened or truncated by malcontents, it is the responsibility of law enforcement to remove the threat and allow events to proceed peacefully. By definition (see the First Amendment) if you don’t support freedom of religion, speech and the press, you are anti-American.
So, how did we devolve into the situations described above? We devolved by allowing those who have no interest in working to build a free, prosperous America the opportunity to tear it down using whatever means they choose.
If it looks like a radical extremist, screams like one, threatens, and verbally attacks like one, it probably is one. It is time to put the word civil back in civil rights.
It is time for Americans to put the radical leftists, rightists, religious zealots, anarchists, hate-filled self-righteous special interest groups and the “politically correct” language police on notice. Those who attempt to suppress free speech will neither be respected nor tolerated.
Americans know:
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
