Freedom of Speach and the Voice of Opposition

There are a few things I have thought about the last couple of weeks that really hit home hard. Kind of like opening the eyes more and more. Some of that has been from my research on my paper, you guys are going to love it. It seems that nothing changes from the Progressive view of things. Same goals for the last 130 years. Other stuff has been from paying attention to events and things that are happening in this great country of ours. The quote below from Frederick Douglas pretty much sums up my biggest concern at the moment.

"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down."

It seems that anyone who dares to utter any thought that is against what President Obama and his allies are trying to shove down our throats is labeled as a racist, corrupt, trying to keep the status quo, a luny, or just being the voice of no trying to stop what they are trying to do. As my wife would say, that is just craptastic. Of course there are people trying to stop what they are doing. If you don't agree with something, you stand up and say no!

It seems that anyone who is standing up and asking questions. Even if just to get more clarification, they are being personally attacked. It seems that nobody likes a voice of opposition when your group is in power. If you show up to a town hall meeting or a tea party they label you as astroturf. They try to use the things they have control over that you want access to, to stifle your voice. Hmmm, don't seem to see lots of people at tea parties wearing color coordinated clothing. Which brings me to one of the things that has me in an outrage. First is the quote below from Andy Stern. He is the President of the Service Employees International Union.

"We're trying to use the power of persuasion. And if that doesn't work, we'll use the persuasion of power."

To get an idea of what that looks like, lets look at the case of Kenneth Gladney who was assaulted by SEIU members outside a town hall meeting in August. This story has come to light again because the police report was just released. Mr. Gladney was handing out American Flags outside of a townhall meeting in St. Louis. He was assaulted by purple shirt wearing, that's how you identify SEIU members. They wear purple shirts when they are organized at a gathering that say SEIU on them. Anyways, this man was physically assaulted for nothing more than exercising his first ammendment rights. Interestingly enough, although there is video and witness statements of the incident, no charges have been filed against these men. Maybe they were angry because he was a black conservative and that just blew their mind. Just remember what Mr. Stern said, the persuasion of power.

Another thing that got me thinking is net neutrality. This basically is a stepping stone that allows the government in to regulate the internet. They want to make share that all content from a varitey of sources is easily accesible to all people. That sounds all nice and fluffy on the outside, but it is about regulating content. The internet is the most free place in the world to express your opinions. I would hate to think that they could say, oh we need to cut down traffic to this blog, but another should be able to get more traffic based solely on what they view as acceptable content.

On a final note, for those saying that I am just fighting to stop what the President is trying to do when it comes to healthcare (although you can see from my previous post I have suggested many alternatives that don't infringe upon anyones free will) the Republican leadership in the house released their own version of a health care bill. It's only 230 pages compared to the 1,990 page bill that Ms. Pelosi has introduced. So at least we know our congressional leaders will have time to read it. It does not require employers to purchase insurance for their employees and it does not have the individual mandate either. This means they are respecting your free will. It will increase incentives for people who use health savings accounts (something the democrat bill is looking to penalize), it caps non-economic injury rewards in malpractice suits at 250k, provides incentives to states to drive down the cost of health insurance, and the biggy, it allows you to purchase insurance across state lines. All of these would bring down cost and the last one would bring true competition into the marketplace.

Oh, total ADD moment here. Last week when Nancy Pelosi was asked in a press conference if the individual mandate violated the Constitution her response was, "Are you serious?" Since when is a question about the Constitution asked of someone who swore an oath to "protect and defend the Constitution" not a serious question?

Remember to keep voicing your thoughts and opinions. Let those around you know what is going on and speak up. A voice of opposition is a good thing. It allows you the opportunity to slow down and think. As Mr. Douglass said, you cannot have liberty without the ability to exercise the most basic right of free speech.