One of the biggest jolts of culture shock I ever received was when I attended Texas A&M University back in the early 90s. Not only was it an immediate transplant into a "country-style" culture, but I was tossed into the ring of issues that I'd never really dealt with in my adolescence.I already felt like a fish out of water just living in Texas... and A&M was like the fillet knife, ready to gut my innards at any time. My first days in school were spent getting acclimated to my new surroundings. I remember walking past old dormitories with Confederate flags draped from the windows. Confederate flags? I vividly remember asking one of my new friends, "WHAT THE FUCK?!"
Then came the big debate on whether the flags were heritage or hate. From there, the debate spiraled into what constitutes hate crimes... and further downhill to the point that hate crimes are a violation of free speech. Huh?? Seriously. Did I miss something here? Eventually, my Republican, White counterpart -- who by all means was a very nice guy... and HOT -- honed in on freedom of religious speech. This all came to be when I not only used my 'Blackness' as an example, but my sexuality, too.
He felt that while homosexuality was "okay" with him, people that disagree with it could be accused of inciting violence if they preached their views... especially pastors in church. Why penalize a religious figure for his thoughts and beliefs? Essentially, hate crime laws would be sequestering his freedom to speak as he chooses. I listened to him... perhaps mesmerized by his green eyes, dirty blond hair, and preppy gear. I couldn't volley a response, because quite frankly, I felt it was a good point at the time.
Now, after life has 'hardened' me up a bit, I absolutely disagree with him in retrospect. To my understanding, hate crimes zero in on hate-driven violence... so as long as a pastor is not actually inciting and encouraging violence against the homosexual community, he should have the right to throw fire and brimstone from his pulpit until he's blue (or black) in the face.
So now, I'm curious. Does anyone actually agree with my Republican friend? Does anyone agree that hate crime laws inhibit freedom of religious speech? Can anyone vindicate my hot college-era friend?
I would much rather people be able to say openly that they hate us, rather than force it underground. I have a real problem with suppressing anybody's opinions and the freedom to express them, even if they are ugly and hateful.
ReplyDeleteThat's way too much Big Brother shit. Regardless of what any other countries are doing, we have a very strong tradition of free speech in this country, and it would be a tragic mistake to curtail that. Suppression won't change anybody's mind, it will only harden them in their hatred. Much better to have all opinions out in the open.
Because what goes around comes around. If I use the law to shut my neighbor up today, tomorrow he may use the same law to shut me up. Not good, not good, not good. That way lies tyranny, and spying on your friends and neighbors, and a police state. We just had 8 years of a fascist regime, do we really want to go there again?
It doesn't matter whether it's a tyranny of the right or a tyranny of the left; dictatorship and mind control are something we must avoid at all costs in this country.
The exception, of course, is direct incitement to violence: it's one thing to call somebody a faggot, a nigger, a kike, a spic, a chink, a gook, or whatever. It's another thing entirely to say, "There he is, get him!!!"
But we already have laws against that kind of thing. More than that is not needed; I remember all the ugly talk about blacks in the segregated South of my childhood, vividly. But eventually, once the civil rights laws were enacted, it all simmered down; prejudice didn't disappear entirely, of course, but the hateful public talk did eventually die down to something negligible. Even the preachers stopped giving those sermons about blacks being cursed as descendants of Ham, yada yada yada.
So no, I don't support all this talk about outlawing free speech. Put the laws in place to ensure legal equality, and the talk will die down eventually, is what I expect will happen. I sure don't want somebody limiting what I can say or think or believe. That's my 2c anyway.