The Furious Spinner

The trial of Bush protestor June Brashares began yesterday. This Code Pinker unfurled an anti-Bush banner during his acceptance speech at the RNC last year. Two operatives pulled her away from the event, even though she had the right credentials. She is one of dozens of protestors who have been charged with crimes. Neither the Democrats or the Republicans have great records in this arena. None of them allowed protestors anywhere near their conventions. I seem to remember Medea Benjamin was thrown out of the DNC.

When did people forget that freedom of speech is a right guaranteed us in our constitution? And freedom of speech does not mean that only people who agree with us are allowed to speak. Although our founding fathers (where were those mothers?) had many flaws, including prejudices against women and blacks, out of the alchemy of their efforts to form this imperfect union came some nuggets of gold, including the freedom of speech. We need to hold onto that freedom. We need to use it and allow others to sing their own songs, too, no matter how discordant it sounds to us.

The Emperors and his fashionistas use words and language against people again and again. They keep changing the topic. They're going after Durbin now (he has even apologized) about comparing some of our practices regarding prisoners with the practices of the Soviets and the Nazis. So now the conversation is no longer about what exactly Rummy and his buddies are up to or about how they may have violated international and national law. It's about what Durbin said. I've heard Democrats jumping on the bandwagon. Jerry Springer on Air America has saying that words like "gulag" and "Nazi" should not be used when discussing the U.S. practices at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. Why not? They're talking about censuring Durbin. WHAT? After all the obscene things Bill Frist has done? After all the obscene things the Emperor and his tailors have done? After all the obscene things Tom Delay has done? Don't let them change the subject. It's not about Durbin using the words Nazi and gulag. It's about what's happening in our name with our tax dollars.

Use your free speech—while you've still got it. 0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

All photographs and written material copyright © 2003-2008 by Kim Antieau unless otherwise indicated. May not be used without permission.