--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Bob M (SCJoniGuy) wrote All kidding aside, this kind > of > sh*t makes me ashamed to live in a country built > on things like freedom of speech. Not what the > founding > fathers & mothers had in mind... > > I can't stand the thought of a group like this > either, > Bob, but I think allowing them to voice their > opinion, > as odious as it is, is exactly what the founding > fathers had in mind. The day we tell people what to > say > and think is the day we should really be ashamed. > (Of > course, a sharp legal mind might be able to > determine > how others' civil liberties are infringed upon by > this > gathering, but I leave that to a greater mind than > mine...)
When Jimmy mentioned this, I thought it was a joke. It sounds like a parody. How do you parody something like that though? It's jaw-droppingly freaky. I guess no one's civil liberties are infringed upon by people gathering together and talking trash, no matter how vile that is to those of us who abhor that kind of thing; but if they're inciting people to commit hate-crimes, that's another story. Theoretically, your right to swing your arm ends when it makes contact with my face (or something like that), but do you wait for the contact? You don't want a society that's so hampered by fear of offending someone else that it just can't speak up - otherwise, you end up with art by committee and holiday trees instead of Christmas trees. On the other hand, this kind of stuff is so offensive it's really hard to believe that these people behave this way. It makes you wonder what kind of childhoods they had that they could hate any group of people with such a vengeance. To me, it's pretty obvious that this is the kind of stuff where the civil liberties of the ones they vilify take precedence over their right to spew their venom; on the other hand, if you try to make them shut up, you drive them underground, which is probably even more frightening - I'd rather have them out in the open where the rest of us can laugh at them and shed a little light on their nastiness. ===== Catherine Toronto ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
