by A.J.(Tony) Powell
First Amendment – Religion and Expression. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
But attacks on religious freedom have more than doubled in the last few years. Last year there were thousands of hostile attacks in the USA.
These days we are not safe even in public places, schools, churches or even the military.
Not all hostility is physical. People have been fired, refused employment, or fined for speaking out about their beliefs.
Even State Legislatures have been sued for starting their day with a prayer. A high school coach was fired for praying after a football game. He lost his lawsuit trying to get his job back.
The heathen judges said that he knelt and prayed on the 50-yard line after a game ended while students and parents still were in the stadium.
They said, his ‘speech’ was directed to those students and spectators and not “directed to God.”
Then there was the navy chaplain who made the mistake of speaking about his views on extramarital sex.
Then we have the huge ‘conflagration’ about football players disrespecting the National Anthem, Lecturers being shouted down and even physically attacked on college campuses and President Trump being told to quit his crazy postings on ‘Twitter’
(By-the-way-I looked up the word ‘TWIT’ it said, “The kind of person that makes a retarded chimp look smart. ”
For most people, ‘Free Speech’ means only that they demand the right to say anything they want to.
But they have no respect for other peoples right to express their views and opinions.
During the recent ‘White Supremacist’ conflict on TV, the PBS commentator described ‘Heavily armed racists parading down the street.” (But I don’t think that they shot anyone).
Then one of the protestors said, “They want to parade, I’ll break their legs. Then we’ll see if they want to pay the price.” The TV Host let that go without comment even though the topic of his program was ‘Free Speech’.
In America and most of Europe, you can say that your President is a ‘twit’ – But, in the rest of the world, that’s probably not a good idea, if you want to stay alive.
But, even in Europe, you can go to jail, for example, not only for denying the holocaust, but for saying that ‘6 million Jews” is not the ‘whole truth’.
When, in fact, most historians estimate that about 11 million humans were exterminated including gays, priests, the mentally and physically disabled, communists, trade unionists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, anarchists, Poles and other Slavic peoples, about 1 million ‘gypsies’ and of course resistance fighters.
“Congress shall make no law ….. abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”
As I See It, stupidity was never intended to be illegal.
America – The land of the brave and the home of the free!
’til next time…….
