STICKS AND STONES

Sticks and Stones and Assassination Prose

Free speech does not cease in a nation predicated upon individual liberty, nor does it inevitably qualify as a “hate crime” simply because you disagree with or are deeply offended by the personal beliefs of others. There are no ‘safe spaces’ from the self-inflicted micro-aggressions of reality…i e., one’s own insecurities or deep-seated biases. Tolerance, disregarding the newly socially engineered version that slanders or threatens divergence with now disturbing regularity, is a prerequisite of free will and the fundamental crux of open and constructive discourse; a Socratic ideal colleges should be obstinately preserving rather than forcibly constricting in the name of fostering political uniformity.

Students, our own sons and daughters, should never be afraid to speak their mind out of fear of condemnation or retribution in our institutions of higher learning, let alone in the sovereign confines of a constitutional republic that openly rebelled against intrusive government, religious persecution, and the oppression of mankind’s natural born rights. If the immediate goal is to label all conservative views as hate speech, then the ultimate objective is the dissolution of our nation’s founding premise and the justified demise of due process. Tyranny goes by many names and you don’t have to be a philosophy student to matriculate into the baited den of madness. One merely must realize that totalitarianism is a futile endeavor because human nature, regardless whether America is buried and replaced by the most progressive state, will always challenge the limitations of any authoritative society that seeks to stifle our unique faculties and man’s innate desire to be free. While freedom of speech does not guarantee freedom from consequences, nor does it pardon terroristic threats, those activists attempting to suffocate the rights of unwelcome perspective, using "racism" as a justifiable alibi to incite violence and civil unrest, represent a far more nefarious threat to America's survival than those brash voices willing to speak their coarse minds and openly face their detractors. The first step in accepting tyranny or unconditional subjugation is to rationalize why you must first surrender your rightful independence.

Although I have no love, respect or earthly need for white or black supremacists, ANTIFA, La Raza, the Muslim Brotherhood or Marxist-Leninists, no one sect or ideology should be less entitled or more accountable for their actions. To quote Voltaire, and to rejoice in the “Common Sense” of Thomas Paine, I may disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, Christian, atheist, white, black, gay, straight, rich, poor, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton…to bask in the light of liberty, the transcendent gifts of humanity’s intellectual prowess, spiritual and empathetic capacity, is to shed the shackles of coerced silence. Those beliefs which cannot stand upon their own merits and withstand the natural rigors of honest scrutiny, will in due time wilt beneath the unsustainable of their own hypocrisy. When confronting "hate speech" requires the political distraction of false accusation, juvenile antagonism and welcomed brutality, the so-called justified response becomes far more deadly and divisive than an annual parade of fools or the mere deployment of words. I am far more wary of those lost souls who are willing to adopt the morally bankrupt premise of senseless rhetoric, then those who merely speak of it to solicit attention.

Right or wrong, I would much rather embrace the uncertainties of individuality, encourage the open exchange of competing ideas to challenge my convictions and unearth the best possible solutions, than to faintly exist amidst the blaring stigma of stereotype to justify mass conformity. Progress, our insatiable thirst for excellence and innovation, isn’t born solely from the comfort of serenity or the pulpit of self-righteousness; it is most often forged from the fires of failure, dissent, necessity and most notably, self-discovery. If people are not willing to discern truth from fiction, volition from fascism as sentient beings, then perhaps it is the media's job to tell us what to think, feel, eat and drink. Two and a half centuries of Americans didn’t toil and sacrifice so their tepid descendants could bite their tongue and recoil in fear amidst the Orwellian tactics of glorified political terrorists. They risked their very lives and the welfare of their children so the flame of freedom, the very First Amendment of our inalienable Bill of Rights, would endure without condition. These unfiltered voices of free will knew what it meant to be an American; more succinctly, they overwhelmingly understood their liberties were a birthright, derived from the grace of God, and not ransomed by any government decree or bloodthirsty movement.

As long as the media wastes more time and resources manipulating public opinion to needlessly demonize or potentially "assassinate" our President - his repeated recognition and clear rejection of hate in all facets of America - instead of equally exposing the actual instigators and perpetrators of mob violence, hate will grow in congruence with society's unwillingness to identify racism without the prism of political consent. Inflaming century old racial tensions simply to selectively report hate exists, does nothing to alleviate its existence or to responsibly condemn intolerance in any of its sprouting forms. Even if ANTIFA, the KKK and the sponsored armies of fascism beat their perceived enemies into submission, they would merely ensure the reciprocal means of their own demise. You can no more command the dead than a tyrant can earn the respect of the brutally oppressed. When “tolerance” requires bloody knuckles and hateful epithets – flash mobs of masked thugs assaulting political dissent – America becomes the first casualty of partisan contempt. Anarchy, however, eagerly invites them all.