(Editor's note: This is the last of a two-part series)
Having failed to curtail First Amendment protections by use of government powers and in the courts, the militant radical left (rad-left) now seeks to do it in the streets.
Radical leftist thugs now mob the streets wearing hoods/masks, calling for the death of cops, destroying property of their choice and beating people with whom they disagree.
For years, "Huckleberry Finn" has been on the rad-left's hit list. In December 2016, "To Kill a Mockingbird" was accorded similar honor -- notwithstanding the unequivocal words and actions of Atticus Finch.
On Feb. 1, at Berkeley, to prevent a conservative "nobody" from speaking on campus, about 150 rad-left rioters, including "Antifa" and "By Any Means Necessary" set fires, damaged property, attacked members of the crowd and threw rocks at the police.
Masked Antifa rioters, who claim to be anti-fascists, instead gave every appearance of being 21st century fascists. Claiming to hate the Klan, they adopt the very tactics utilized by the Klan for 100 years.
In April, the New Orleans city council declared statues of Jefferson Davis, P.G.T Beauregard and Robert E. Lee to be "public nuisances" and ordered their removal.
On Aug. 14 at Durham, N.C., rioters pulled down and destroyed the statue of a Confederate soldier.
On Aug. 17, a plaque honoring Confederate soldiers was removed from a cemetery in Madison, Wis.
The same day, Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J., announced he would introduce a bill to remove all Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol.
On Aug.18, a statue of former Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was removed from in front of the Annapolis, Md., statehouse. (Taney had authored the Dred Scott opinion).
On Aug. 19, a statue of Robert E. Lee was defaced in front of the Duke University Chapel. The university president then removed the statue to "protect worshippers."
In an Aug. 19 interview with Charlie Rose, Al Sharpton demanded an end to federal funding for maintenance of the Jefferson Memorial. (We are to ignore Jefferson's greatness. All that matters is Jefferson owned slaves!): “You’re asking me to subsidize the insult of my family. ... The public should not be paying to uphold somebody who has had that kind of background ”
Not to be outdone, Angela Rye, Congressional Black Caucus Director, on CNN said, "George Washington was a slaveowner. Whether we think they were protecting American freedom or not, he wasn't protecting my freedom.
"This country was built on ... the raping and the killing of my ancestors. I'm not going to allow it ... it's OK for Robert E. Lee but not George Washington."
On Aug. 21, a 225 year-old Baltimore statue of Christopher Columbus was vandalized. The justification: "Christopher Columbus symbolizes the initial invasion of European capitalism into the Western Hemisphere. Columbus initiated a centuries of wave of terrorism, murder, genocide, rape, slavery, ecological degradation and capitalist exploitation of labor in the Americas."
On Aug. 27, the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis removed "Gone with the Wind" from its lineup, claiming it was racially "insensitive."
Since the 1990 Supreme Court holding in U.S. v. Eichman, flag burning/desecration is a protected form of political speech. The left now wants to extend that holding to smashing statues, burning books and censoring movies. But Eichman had an important caveat -- you can burn your own flag, but burning your neighbor's is criminal damage to property. Worse, its barbarism and fascism.
The rad-left rejects the hallowed First Amendment tenet that their "enlightened" ideas must compete with conservative ideas in the "marketplace of ideas." New vs. old. The left, instead, prefers to suppress and silence all opposition speech. After all, that's what good fascist and communists always do.
Today, the rad-left attacks statues, books and movies because they honor men who held slaves or who fought for the Confederacy. Reminiscent of President Barack Obama's Justice Department in Alvarez, the rad-left believes anything tainted by slavery has no value and hence no First Amendment protection. And worse, anyone who disagrees with their fascist notions is a racist and has no right to honor great, albeit tainted, political figures.
By the same logic, their next step is to trash the U.S. Constitution. Was it not born of a compromise that allowed the slave states to maintain slavery within their borders? Does it not contain a provision to count slaves as "3/5ths" for purposes of apportionment?
Provision for the return of fugitive slaves?
Posted: QCOline.com September 18, 2017
Copyright 2017, John Donald O'Shea
No comments:
Post a Comment