The Old Man's Tears

I was walking through the park the other day when I came across an older gentleman sitting on a bench. Every time I walked by him, I noticed there were tears streaming silently down his stubbled cheeks.

On my third lap around the park, I decided to sit down and try to console the man. Perhaps he was mourning his wife or a child and the least I could do was sit with him for a spell.

"Sir," I said, sitting on the bench next to him. "Are you OK?"

He turned and looked at me, as if surprised that I even noticed him.

"Young man, I'm in mourning.

"My wife is healthy, and all my children and grandchildren are living happy and healthy lives, but still I mourn."

"A good friend?" I asked, thinking back to how I felt when a few of my friends had passed over the years.

"Oh, I wish it was that simple," he said, laughing bitterly.

"What else is there to mourn this much for?" I thought to myself.

"Son, let me tell you a short story.

"I fought in a war that freed a continent from evil and stopped the wholesale oppression and slaughter of a people only to see much the same thing here a home.

"I watched as a great man marched peacefully in far too many cities to bring equality and freedom to people long held as 'inferior.' In fact, I marched with him when I could, and was there in spirit when I couldn't.

"I worked hard to bring financial security for my family so that they would never know the deprivation we now know as the 'Great Depression.' For us, it was just 'hard times.'

"I've watched as people have come and gone, making unfulfilled promises along the way.

"I've wondered at the technological marvels and medical miracles our society has produced for all mankind - jet fighters and passenger jets, helicopters, prosthetic limbs, diseases cured. All of that brought about by free-thinking, freedom-loving people with a will to break from tradition and convention.

"I watched with fascination as mankind slipped free the bonds of Earth and traveled to the moon and focused their eyes on the stars.

"I watched with amusement as science chases God with intent to destroy Him, and laughed as He wriggled free of their grasp and created more of His wonders for them to study.

"I've seen evil come along on gilded wings, yet be rejected, defeated, when good people took a stand.

"I've seen more good than bad in my days here.

"And yet...." he trailed off, staring off into the distance.

As he had spoken, the tears had dried. Now, they returned full force.

"What?" I asked, spellbound. This man knew how to tell a story. "Why do you cry?"

"I don't weep for myself. I've had a long and mostly happy life.

"I don't cry for my friends, who are more like me than not.

"I don't cry even for you. You're old enough to have fought for the right things. Whether you did or not is immaterial - you should have.

"I weep because that which we have fought so long for, that which we have gained, we are losing! Worse, we are giving them away!

"What has happened to the only nation where the freedom to speak your mind is guaranteed? When did we devolve into a nation of sissies, afraid to hear a viewpoint opposite of our own?

"When did we decide that giving up our own rights was the 'safe' thing to do?

"I weep for the United States of America I used to know out of the fear that my grandchildren will never know what it means to be truly FREE." ~ Hunter

Free Speech: If We Lose That, America Is Done

Recently, the comedian Jerry Seinfeld declared that he would no longer perform on college campuses, joining Chris Rock and several others in that sentiment. Seinfeld says that the atmosphere of political correctness makes it impossible for comics to play a college. He's right.

 

This is the United States of America. The very first amendment to the Constitution, the cornerstone of our society, is the right to free speech. That guarantee was meant specifically to protect unpopular, possibly offensive, speech. There is no inherent obligation for others to listen to that speech, but the right of the speaker to say it is inviolable.

 

Or it used to be.

 

Today, we have "free speech zones" on college campuses, meaning that if you want to say something that might offend someone else you must be in one of those zones when you say it or face disciplinary measures. It isn't just private colleges with "free speech zones." Public colleges have them, as well as colleges that take our tax dollars.

 

Private institutions can, and should, have their own rules. If they want to ban free speech, it's within their rights to do so. They will eventually pay the price when people stop using their services, buying their products, etc.

 

The fact is that colleges and universities are fast becoming the places where individual freedoms and critical thought go to die, which is diametrically opposite what they should be.

Any public institution, or an institution that takes public money, should be the staunchest DEFENDERS of free speech anywhere on campus.

 

You may ask why I single them out specifically. That's easy. Using the liberal thought process, which is so ridiculously simple that an underachieving 2nd grader can follow it.

If the government is the guarantor of the fallacious "separation of Church and State" in that prayer and religious symbolism should not and cannot be on or in public properties, i.e., schools, courthouses, and other government buildings, and that's in keeping with the religious freedom portion of the 1st Amendment, should it not also follow that the government is the guarantor of the free speech portion of the same amendment on public lands?

 

Why one and not the other?

 

If we lose the freedom of speech, this nation is gone, and gone forever. We must take a stand against the tyranny of political correctness.

 

The time is now. ~ Hunter

 

 

The Cowardice of Moral Equivalency

For all those cowards - and I do mean cowards - like Juan Williams, Greta Van Susteren, Geraldo Rivera, and Bill O'Reilly, who believe that Pamela Gellar is somehow "responsible" for two lunatics driving at least 1000 miles to attack an art exhibition and cartoon contest, I have one thing to say. Do try to keep up...

The show Gellar put on is not the same as falsely yelling "FIRE!!!" in a crowded theater, despite your clumsy attempts at conflating the two.

In the crowded theater scenario there is a reasonable expectation that people will be harmed as a result of an immediate panic in the theater. The person raising the false alarm is directly responsible for causing the panic and the harm.

In the United States, there is - and this is an important point - NO REASONABLE EXPECTATION that our words and/or expressions will incite someone to violence. You can protest that speech all you want with your own free speech, but the second you cross over into violence, you are the problem, not whatever it was that offended you.

Free speech is free speech. There are no qualifiers. It doesn't matter how offensive the words are, or who those words offend. If you don't understand this, if you don't support this, you couldn't care less about the freedoms upon which this nation was built. ~ Hunter