Free speech protected. Terrorism not protected.

Last week I posted some of my feelings regarding the events in Charlottesville and lost a friend.  I did some things that were my fault, perhaps, because my post was not clear. I mixed in the recent ramblings of the Googler, who’s sexist manifesto pointed out a blind spot in the conservative understanding of corporate diversity in the same sentences as I discussed the existence of racism in my home state.  That was a mistake although there appears to be a link regarding blind spots to be investigated at some later time.  That said, I do not believe my former friend to be a racist. I believe, however, that a huge blind spot exists in his ability to separate rational thinking about free speech protected under the 1st Amendment and from his emotional attachment to our liberties.  We must surmise then that he, like many other Americans, are simply confused by their upbringing, their ignorance, their blind spots, and the current turmoil in our political climate.   After a week of thinking it through I would now like to clear up a few things. Not for him but perhaps for some other friends who might  still be confused.  I fully anticipate losing a few more friends when I am done. I hope not...but perhaps our only hope is to change the future by getting correct thinking out there to our millennials before it’s too late. It’s 2017.  The events of 1861, 1941, and 1961 have advanced our ability to live in society significantly yet we have clearly regressed as the events this past year of illustrated.

To start, there certainly are limits to our Constitutional protections.  Thus, we should not be out there dying for our Country to protect the things that are not protected.  There always have been limits. This primarily comes about because we must live in a society with other people.  You can choose to live in the middle of nowhere, off the grid, outside of society, you are free to do so. Dance naked outside, fire your gun into the air, worship a tree. There are many remote areas of the world where you can disappear into the wilderness, live off the land, fend for yourself, live on a pond, live in a cabin, live in a tent, live in a cave, and write your manifesto.  We’ve seen examples of that kind of liberty many times.  Here are two examples of note.

The first example is Henry David Thoreau. His book “Walden” has inspired Libertarians and civil disobedience for decades.  There is nothing wrong with a little civil disobedience. I can argue that civil disobedience is perhaps the greatest protection of our freedom. Ironically civil disobedience isn’t even protected by our constitution.  You could certainly be arrested.  Your protection comes in the form of a justice system that will not lock you in jail and throw away the key without due process.  That justice system must be preserved because is the corner stone of our civil liberties.  Not just because the Supreme Court (not the Bill of Rights), determines what liberties are protected by the Constitution, but more importantly what behavior in not protected by the Constitution. At its core, a non-violent protest is civil disobedience when certain laws our broken.  When that occurs, people are carted off to jail. Civil disobedience is against the law.  However, in our Country, those law breakers will not be beaten, tortured, or killed. They will appear before a judge to have their behavior judged. Those who engage in such behavior are putting their trust in the hands of our system.  They trust that our law enforcement will behave in a controlled and civilized manner.  If you can’t trust the system to protect you, a non-violent act of civil disobedience ceases to be an option.  Some of the greatest men in history were advocates of the non-violent protest and threw all of their trust in their own systems to resist in a peaceful fashion…Gandhi, Mandela, and of course MLK. As a note, if you believe Hitler and what he stood for are somehow equivalent to what these men stood for and thus entitles you to speak in our society, you are not a friend of mine.  Recently, the ACLU, has been rethinking their very own position on this particular topic.

The second example is Theodore John Kaczynski, and he, of course, was a terrorist.  He is a terrorist of a special class.  He is just like the cockroaches within ISIS who we are currently in the process of exterminating.  As the Uni-Bomber he was a domestic terrorist.  Both classes of terrorist are threats to our country and our way of life.  ISIS is a foreign terrorist organization which has targeted our way of life externally…to be clear, although they are radical Islamic terrorists, they do not represent Islam.  Kaczynski is a terrorist who targeted our way of life from the inside.  Unfortunately, there are many other domestic terrorist organizations (DTOs) within our Country.  The KKK is perhaps the easiest example and best known DTO that I can point to.  They are the poster child for a DTO.  But there are others…so let me pick on the far left for a moment.  The Earth Liberation Front, or ELF, is a DTO. Their activities are dangerous because they have chosen to add violence to their repertoire of political protest.  In fact, Craig Rosebraugh, the former spokesperson for the ELF wrote a book, or manifesto, entitled “The Logic of Political Violence”.  These days he seems to have chilled out and while he continues to be an activist for extreme causes, he has backed away from violence.  His book remains a manifesto of interest for radical groups justifying their cause. He should be in jail.

So, unless you are Thoreau or Kaczynski, you have decided to live within the bounds of society. That means you ascribe to the precepts of governance.  That means government.  That means laws.  The two are one and the same. Government and society cannot be separated.  That means we must exhibit decent societal, not necessarily moral, behavior.  That means you can be a slob in your appearance, bulging, smelly and unwashed, unshaven, with a shirt that is borderline obscene, or with pants drooping down to your knees, and in some cases, wearing a holster with a fire arm in the open, into the public square. You cannot walk around in the same public square with your junk hanging out.  You can live homeless, without a job, live in your parent’s basement, live on welfare, or basically be a freeloader all your life.  You can’t rob banks, defraud senior citizens of their savings, or set fire to things.  You can set fire to the American Flag.  And of course, you can cheat on your wife, watch porn on the internet, or go to strip clubs.  You can’t rape or sexually molest anyone. There is no difference between the rules that bind society and the rules that are set up by our government for us to live in peace.  Oh, by the way, in the United States, our founding fathers set up this little thing called the separation of Church and State, which means, morality cannot be dictated by the state.  Laws so we can leave in peace, are dictated by the state.  You don’t have to like your neighbor, you don’t have to believe what you neighbor believes, you do have to tolerate their behavior if they abide by the rules.  You do not have to tolerate their behavior if they break the rules.

Everybody, I hope, already knows most of this.  Nobody tolerates a murderer or a rapist. If that’s the case why would anyone tolerate a terrorist?  To be clear, the KKK is a terrorist organization.  To allow the KKK to march in our streets is exactly equivalent to allowing ISIS to march in our streets…even if ISIS vows to do so in a peaceful fashion. Just because I know it’s coming I will say for the record we also do not tolerate the ELF or ALF marching in our streets.  To tolerate such activity is to sympathize with their cause. To compare terrorist organizations with protest groups is to sympathize with the terrorism. Whereas we do need to tolerate a skinhead buying a Twix Bar at the 7/11 we do not tolerate the KKK marching with torches on the street.  Whereas we do need to tolerate PETA protesting at the local puppy mill distribution center, we do not need to tolerate the Animal Liberation Front bombing a rendering plant.  Whereas we do need to tolerate the protesting of Planned Parenthood with a picket line, we do not tolerate the Army of God bombing an abortion clinic.

The KKK, simply from their violent history of murder and hate, have come to symbolize terror.  From their white hooded robes, to their torches, the nooses used for lynching their very presence meets the definition of terrorism.  They threaten violence regardless of whether or not they commit violence on any given day.   “It’s ain’t armed robbery if the gun isn’t loaded”. To quote from the movie Raising Arizona. How many American’s believe this line?  I hope no one…but the steady stream of support for allowing KKK protests under some misguided delusion that their speech is protected makes me wonder.

The best example of this aside from the protests in Charlottesville, sadly occurred back in June when a noose was found left at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.  This was seen by some as protected speech.  It is not protected speech.  It was a threat of violence.  Just because the noose didn’t explode didn’t mean it’s not an act of domestic terrorism.  Just because the gun isn’t loaded doesn’t mean it’s not armed robbery.  If one tourist is dissuaded from visiting the museum out of fear it is a terrorist act that compelled them not to go. 

The Swastika was usurped by the Third Reich and became a symbol of the holocaust.  It evokes terror in the hearts of populations worldwide.  In a similar fashion, inside the United States, the Confederate Flag has been usurped by white supremacy groups as a symbol of terror.  If you believe the confederate flag is a symbol of southern pride, hospitality, large front porches, sweet tea, lazy Sundays, or the Crimson Tide, it is not. It has been stripped of any previous nostalgic southern pride.

Southerners should have tried to take it back from the KKK and other white supremacy groups long ago.  It was not important enough to do so thus they have lost it forever as a symbol of the south. It’s important to point out here that even if you still feel nostalgia for the Confederate flag and do not feel terror, it is because you are not the the one being terrorized.  A class of our American brothers and sisters are being terrorized.  If you cannot understand that fact and do not want to protect your fellow American brothers and sisters from this terror you are not an American that I can respect.  If you waive the Swastika or the Confederate flag out of some misguided belief in free speech, you have become, even if by proxy, a domestic terrorist.  You might as well be waiving the Black Standard (The flag of ISIS). You are not a friend of mine.

If you believe marching with torches (even ridicules bamboo Tiki torches purchased at Bed Bath and Beyond) is a valid expression of protest, you are wrong.  In the context of a white supremacy protest you are siding with the KKK and have formed the symbolic equivalent of a lynch mob.  You are not protesting. You are now a domestic terrorist. You are not a friend of mine.

If you believe that the KKK has the moral equivalent of a group such as the Black Lives Matter movement and make such a comparison to downplay the behavior of the KKK you are sympathizing with a terrorist group. BLM is not a hate group brought together by an ideology of hate.  BLM is movement of non-violent protest borne out of necessity to address a social injustice. Should BLM turn to violent protest they could be considered criminals but certainly not terrorists.  They are not enemies of the state as are the DTO I've described trying to achieve political influence through terror. Should BLM eventually advocate for violence for some other reason yet to be understood, such as the Black Panthers did in the 60's, they would be considered a DTO.  This is why at least one high ranking US Official is now under fire and must back away from these sympathies with what happened in Charlottesville.  If you express sympathies toward a terrorist group you are not a friend of mine. 

I don’t think I can make it any clearer.  Free speech protected.  Terrorism not protected.