What Can't I Handle?

I am tired of people trying to censor ideas because they don't agree with them.

I don't agree with plenty of people, but I let them speak.  Voltaire said, "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."  I'm not so sure that I'd die for something trivial, but I still believe that people have the right to say things I don't want to hear.

I don't want to hear, for example, commentary ad nauseum about Barack Obama's speech at Notre Dame's graduation.  He said what he said, which I thought was pretty measured.  Let people think for themselves.

I don't want to hear the KKK or Nazi apologists spout racial and religious hatred, which includes hate speech against not only Jews but Muslims and Christians and whoever else they have in their sights.  I don't want to hear Bill Maher go on one of his anti-religion rants.  But the Constitution guarantees, despite the ill-considered Patriot Act, the freedom of speech.  If I get too offended, I can switch channels, turn off the television, read a book, poke Q-tips through my ear drums, listen to the Jonas Brothers, push bamboo splints under my fingernails, or whatever else I can think of.  

These people have the right to say whatever they want.  I have the right not to listen, or to disagree, or to speak against their ideas.  But I cannot shut them up or censor them.

I have close friends who tell me that they keep things from people, usually their parents, who "can't handle" their ideas or actions or beliefs. Self censorship is probably a good idea, and it's one of the reasons I don't drop my favorite F-bomb adjective throughout this post.   I never used that excuse though.  I didn't tell my parents things because it was either none of their business or they would try to use it against me or both.  I didn't try to justify that they "couldn't handle it."

I do not believe that government agencies should keep things from us because they fear we "cannot handle them."  [On the other hand, the previous administration managed to get itself reelected in 2004 by injecting and projecting fear.   It extorted votes from the population.  In the most recent election that tactic stopped working and they got voted out.]  We need to know facts that affect us.  If there is an anthrax - or swine flu - threat, we need to take precautions.  And I need to decide for myself what I can "handle."  

I don't want to hear about swine flu particularly, and for this reason I have stopped watching most television news.  When I do watch, I look for the information I need and then turn it off or switch channels.  

The right to free speech has two sides.  I can say what I want and listen to what I choose.  

On nine-eleven, for example, I did not have the television on until a relative called and told me to watch CNN.  I saw what was happening, was suitably horrified, and turned the television off.  I checked in every couple of hours, but most of what I saw was constant repetition, a devaluing, even trivializing in effect, of the event.  I did not end up with post-traumatic stress disorder from seeing the twin towers fall a gazillion times.  I did feel great betrayal, anger, fear, and distress at the event.  But I was not required to sit glued to the television having the tragedy imprinted over and over on my brain.

The graduates at Notre Dame last week had/ have the same two options I have.  Some of them chose to stay away.  They chose not to hear what our president had to say.  Others listened whether they agreed or not.   The two sides of the coin (should) apply equally. 

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Treason in America

Please feel free to click on comments beneath each entry and share your thoughts.

Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been convicted of perjury for lying to a grand jury over a period of time about the revealing of Valerie Plame’s name as a CIA operative.

Vice President Cheney is “saddened” by the verdict, and tells us what a great guy Scooter is. Where are Cheney’s standards? Is perjury no longer against the law, Mr. Vice President?

Pressure is on President Bush to pardon the poor man. A White House spokesman reports that the president will not pardon poor Scooter “at this time,” leaving the option open for later, perhaps when the president's approval ratings rise above twenty-five percent. In the meanwhile, Scooter is asking to remain at large while he appeals his sentence of a little over two years - and Cheney declares there should be a retrial.

Both scandal-ridden World Bank boss Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld, fired as Bush’s Secretary of Defense after his strategy failed in Iraq, wrote letters asking for leniency. What chutzpah! That’s like Medea (who killed her children to spite Jason) applying to be a foster parent or Jeffrey Dahmer battling against Hannibal Lector on Top Chef. On the other hand, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld both became fall guys for the administration and they might think that lends their voices credibility.

And after all, poor Scooter has suffered public humiliation. Scooter gave his life to the Republican Party and became the current fall guy for the administration’s utter contempt for the Constitution. Isn’t that enough?

Outing a CIA agent is treason, by law. When did treason become a misdemeanor? And why did we Americans permit the current Gang In Power (GOP? - oops, wrong vowel) to form a Good Old Pols (there it is, GOP) group that acts with reckless disregard for the country – as long as their own interests thrive?

In the last election in Illinois fewer than 20 % of registered voters went to the polls. Translated to eligible voters, the percentage drops dramatically. Why the apathy? Some people don’t register to vote so they won’t be called for jury duty, which could well cause financial hardship. In Cook County, jurors can be assigned to courts two hours from their homes and be taken from their work. If they work by the hour and don’t get paid if they don’t show up, the $17.20 per diem stipend can send them into a life on the streets.

Others don’t vote because they despair that the political parties act only to further the interests of the parties, not the country as a whole. And they’re partly right. After the promises not to attach pork barrel amendments to important legislation, the Democrats continue the path of their opponents. Who wouldn’t despair? When party agendas become so important, the country suffers. Look around.
But the 80+% who chose not to vote in the last election have abrogated their responsibility to the few, the ones who feel strongly about government, too often the ones who believe the Bill of Rights is outdated, that freedom of speech should be limited, that the separation of church and state should be abolished and a theocracy formed (it works well in Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia doesn’t it?), and that the Second Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” means that every citizen, regardless of competence, should be forced to carry.

I voted in the last election, and I hasten to add that most of my fellow citizens who also voted still believe in the Bill of Rights, despite the Patriot Act’s attempts to crush it.

The problem with the current administration is that they talk long and loud about a strong America, free from attack. Yet at the same time they preach hate and fear and form policies that create new attackers. How many more times can the president cite September 11, 2001, as the reason for whatever off-the-cuff policy he proposes this time?

If we really believe in a strong America, we must demand that the people who revealed Valerie Plame’s CIA connection be tried for treason. If that’s Cheney, tough. President Clinton was impeached for lying about a blow job, but no one seems to think Bush’s or Cheney’s or any of their advisors’ behavior is worth looking into.

We must take America back. We must begin once again to uphold standards of law and the Constitution. If we fail to do so, a free United States of America could cease to exist. And we may well find ourselves rebelling against another King George.