-Caveat Lector-
NO APOLOGY FOR DEFENDING, EXERCISING RIGHTS
By Bob Glass
Source: ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS (Denver CO)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
June 7, 2001, Thursday
It is outrageous, hypocritical and cowardly for a journal like the Rocky
Mountain News, whose daily existence rests on the sanctity of the First
Amendment, to take cheap shots at those citizens who choose to exercise
their First Amendment rights in a different way. I am referring to the
attacks made against me and the Tyranny Response Team in the editorial of
May 31, "Louts on the protest line."
I will not apologize for using our passion, our lungs and our bullhorns to
convey our message. Being a true grass-roots movement we do not have the
corporate sponsors or the money that the Million Mom March or SAFE Colorado
has, and consequently we cannot afford to run full-page ads in the News like
they do. We must stand in the streets and holler, because the media has
failed miserably in its responsibility to report all sides of the issue.
Despite the best efforts of News reporters such as Carla Crowder to
discredit us, a handful of people willing to stand up for the Bill of Rights
has drawn large numbers of people into our ranks, not just in Colorado, but
across the country. The numbers of Million Mom Marchers on the other hand,
have plummeted faster than the Mir space station. Their Mother's Day rally
that drew 3,500 people a year ago only attracted a pathetic 200 this year.
They were quick to blame the tactics of the TRT for their dismal turnout,
never once considering that it is our message that is at last being heeded.
Not content simply to point their fingers at us and scream, "No fair!," they
had to rat us out to the high priests and police of political correctness,
the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL, like their cowardly and hypocritical
brethren in the Million Mom March, won't come right out and call us anti-
Semites or racists (a tall order considering that I am Jewish), but must
rely on their stock in trade of smear, innuendo and character assassination.
They claim to be concerned about the "kind of people that might be drawn
into our ranks" and the possible link between "rogue members of the TRT that
might have made threats against Tom Mauser." And like their philosophical
comrades at the News, they too are concerned with our tactics.
This is a transparent and despicable attempt to demonize us without having
the guts to accuse us of anything concrete or engage us in a public debate.
And after all, what can they accuse us of? No member of the TRT has ever
been arrested at a demonstration, nor has any TRT member been questioned
about threatening anyone.
I have repeatedly asked the Million Mom March, SAFE Colorado and the ADL to
debate the issues with me in a public forum of their choosing. They have all
refused. As a consequence of their refusal they have left us no choice but
to use the theater of the street to make our points.
Despite the self-evident absurdity of their emotional rhetoric, their
arguments are historically, ethically, morally and constitutionally bankrupt
and they know it - hence their refusal to debate.
It is an inescapable irony that history repeats itself. Undoubtedly the
good, upstanding, respectable members of Boston society along with its
newspapers strictly condemned the tactics of a band of ruffians and
hooligans, some 200 years ago as they boarded a ship in Boston Harbor and
contemptuously broke the rules.
These "louts" dressed up in outrageous costumes and painted their faces in
wild colors as they trespassed on private property. This band of rowdies
stole merchandise and, in bold defiance of the king's law, dumped it into
the sea. This act of flagrant disregard for all civilized behavior was to
become known as the Boston Tea Party.
You might find our tactics distasteful. We find the destruction of liberty
even more distasteful. Get used to us. Unlike our cause du jour adversaries,
we have pledged our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor to winning back
our freedoms.
NOTES:
Bob Glass is president of the Longmont-based Tyranny Response Team.
SPEAKOUT
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