FREE SPEECH?
IT'S UP TO YOU
NOW
National
Prayer Network
By Harmony
Grant
18 Apr 07
We are in a hold-your-breath moment
in American history. Our civil liberties tremble in enormous danger from
Stalinist legislation that could, within days, largely shatter our freedom
of speech. American civil liberties are our best protection from the abuses
of government. They define the U.S.A. we know and love, a nation where we
can travel and gather in extraordinary freedom, write and read almost
anything, and speak our minds in public. Without civil liberties, there will
be no America left in which to resist “Islamofascism” or wage “culture
wars.” Before any other battle, we must protect our rights.
On Thursday April 12, Sens.
Ted Kennedy and Gordon Smith re-introduced the federal thought crimes bill,
renaming it after Matthew Shepard, the most famous and misrepresented “hate
crime victim.” It’s like the maraschino cherry in the poisoned gin of lies
spread about this legislation (See, "Top
11 Reasons You Should Fight Hate Laws" ).
Shepard wasn’t the victim of a hate crime and his brutal death was
prosecuted without federal help (which is what a federal hate bill
is all about).
It’s poetic justice that Kennedy and
Smith chose a fake “hate crime” victim for fake “anti-hate” legislation.
These laws don’t counter hate; they institutionalize it by empowering the
government to prosecute “bias”—and to decide whose biases are bad! This bill
would allow the feds to invade states' rights in law enforcement, violating
the Constitution. It would create castes of crime victims in our society,
tripling penalties for criminals who are judged to be motivated by a “bias”
that the government has declared illegal. This means if a 20-year-old kills
a drag queen and a judge thinks he was motivated by rage at effeminacy he’ll
spend three times longer in jail than if he’d killed his girlfriend because
of rage that she cheated.
Violent crimes should be punished,
and all their victims should get satisfaction from the law, period. The
government has no business in the complicated psychology of motivations,
beliefs, and biases. “Anti-hate” laws also do worse than triple penalties
for bias-motivated violent crimes; they set precedents for the
criminalization of pure speech itself.
This federal law could pass very
soon, within days. The Imus fiasco demonstrates the culture of
censorship promoted by progressive leftists in mainstream media. A scary
willingness to trample freedom of speech also shows in the European Union’s
proposal to punish Holocaust denial with up to three years’ jail, in all EU
states. This law is before the EU right now, and many believe it will pass.
It will criminalize “denial or trivialization” of the Jewish Holocaust and
1994 genocide in Rwanda, but no others. A majority of EU member states
refuse to include Communism’s mass murders. This refusal further reveals the
ideological bent of the ban; thought crime laws enforce one perception of
history, and privilege one set of victims. The same goes for hate laws and
all speech bans. They are, by nature, discriminatory.
Our beliefs always do discriminate and privilege, but that’s the right of
individuals, not governments. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson said in
1943, "No official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox
politics, nationalism, religion, or any other matters of opinion, or force
citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."
I wish every American citizen knew
and understood those words. Maybe then we would be quicker to resist a
federal hate law that would—among other things—prescribe approval of
homosexuality as national orthodoxy, silencing moral objections under threat
of jail-time.
Who’s Talking
about the Hate Bill?
More conservatives are
following the leadership of Rev. Ted Pike and the National Prayer Network,
sounding the alarm about the threat of the federal hate bill. Janet Folger’s
work has been especially valuable (http://www.f2a.org/).
Townhall columnist Matt Barber served his readers well with two spitfire
pieces about the bill (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MattBarber/2007/04/05/cwa_to_feds__it%E2%80%99s_time_to_investigate_fake_hate_crimes_reports?page=full&comments=true)
and (http://townhall.com/columnists/MattBarber/2007/04/13/gay_goliath_lobs_dud_at_cwa;_aims_for_clever,_lands_on_silly),
and The New American ran a great critique by Alabama Supreme Court senior
attorney John Eidsmoe (http://www.jbs.org/node/3138).
World Net Daily (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55254)
features an excellent news piece with references to National Prayer Network.
The Christian Newswire (http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/118142817.html)
also put out a warning. FOX News (http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Apr12/0,4670,HateCrimes,00.html)
and the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041201864.html)
both ran a small Associated Press story; Cybercast News Service (http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200703/CUL20070321a.html)
and the Washington Times (http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031112-115215-9311r.htm)
did their own.
Homosexual news and advocacy
organizations write supportively of the bill, as have the Arab-American
Anti-Discrimination Committee and, of course, the Anti-Defamation League and
the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
Still, there is far more awareness of the gun lobby and their resistance to
gun control laws than of any kind of “freedom lobby.” Many, many major
conservative news outlets—and mainstream sources, of course—remain silent
about this horribly dangerous legislation.
Other Arrows
in the Anti-Christ Quiver
The federal hate law is just the
scariest weapon in an arsenal of speech control legislation looming over
America. Even now, the Supreme Court is hearing a landmark free speech case;
and the Fairness Doctrine, which would shatter talk radio, is getting
bandied about as a solution to stupid talkers like Imus (and political
opponents of the Democrats in Congress and the Clinton machine).
Imus’ words were crass and mean,
just the latest in a string of bad stuff he’s said. But lynching him is not
the right response! “The only thing worse than an uncivil society is a
society where government legislates what is civil,” comments Charles Haynes
of the First Amendment Center.
“If you want to see what the brave
new world of controlled speech looks like, visit many of our public colleges
and universities — places that are supposed to be bastions of free
expression. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education,
more than 73% of public universities maintain unconstitutional speech codes,
despite numerous federal court decisions striking down similar policies.
Overall, 68% of colleges and universities surveyed, including private
institutions, have policies that restrict freedom of speech.” (1)
After Imus slurred the Rutgers'
women's basketball team, Oprah Winfrey hosted them on her show. She praised
their grace in “holding up” under the terrible, horrific trauma of being
called a bad name by a shock jock. The women spoke of “shattered dreams”
with pathos that makes you wonder how they mark a true tragedy like the
Virginia Tech massacre.
Yes, words wound. But I’d rather be
called every foul word found in America’s truckstops than have the federal
government shut somebody’s mouth by force. Doesn’t anybody remember Stalin?
Censorship is one of humankind’s primal urges, and that’s abundantly clear
from our government’s present actions. It’s up to us to protest, before our
right of free expression is swept away.
Our laws already sufficiently
criminalize violent actions committed against American citizens, whatever
their stripes. We do not want speech codes that ban free
expression. We do not want a federal hate law to create special
classes of victims, providing triple penalties for criminals based on the
thinking behind their actions. We do not want Big Brother
legislating our thoughts, beliefs, and biases.
Liberals want government to stay out
of the bedroom? Well, I want government to keep their handcuffs off my mind!
Many people do realize this. Big
kudos and thanks go to the Christian, conservative groups who are on the
strange side of freedom in the ongoing case of Deborah Morse, Juneau
School Board v. Joseph Frederick. This Supreme Court case concerns a
student’s right to hold up a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” across the
street from his school.
Who thinks Joe Frederick
should be allowed to hold up this nonsensical, arguably irreverent, pro-drug
banner across the street from his school? Christians, that’s who! Supporters
of the student’s rights include the Christian Legal Society, the American
Center for Law and Justice, the Alliance Defense Fund, and the Rutherford
Institute—solidly conservative organizations. These groups recognize that if
school officials are allowed to censor Frederick’s controversial speech they
will be able to censor other student speech—that of Christians and
conservatives, the most common targets of academic speech codes. (See Nat
Hentoff’s column
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0715,hentoff,76319,2.html)
This case is a perfect example of
defending speech you dislike to preserve speech you value. And it is further
proof that freedom of speech has become a battle for the conservative right,
whose moral beliefs are the ultimate target of speech codes and “anti-hate”
legislation.
If we do not speak up and fight this
battle now, we may lose the chance forever. Now is the time to call and
protest to your elected representatives, demanding that they resist the
federal hate bill when it comes to a full vote in the House. Make your voice
heard. Nothing matters more than defending our civil liberties at this
crucial moment in our nation’s history.
Endnote:
(1) Charles Haynes' column, April 15, “Imus,
Coulter and the marketplace for offensive speech”
Harmony Grant writes and edits
for National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog group. Read
more of her work at
www.hisnamesake.blogspot.com.
Contact her at
harmony@truthtellers.org.
Come to
www.truthtellers.org for full information
on how you can help preserve freedom of speech in America. (Click
What Can I Do? )
Watch Rev. Pike's film
Hate Crimes: Making Criminals of Christians
at video.google.com for the whole story of how ADL took away free
speech in Canada and wants to do the same in America. The film is also
available at
www.truthtellers.org
in VHS or DVD for $24.90 postpaid.
TALK SHOW HOSTS:
For an interview with Rev. Ted Pike or Harmony Grant, call 503-631-3808.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR 97015