Free Speech or Intolerant Abuse

Many Opinions

Good day, good people.

For devotees of the English language: Contemn is a transitive verb. It means to disdain or scorn.

White supremacists are not the only intolerants. Intolerance is a national insidious disease and poisonous.

During the first round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, Southern Mississippi played Kansas State. Angel Rodriquez was a freshman guard on the Kansas State team. Five members of the University of Southern Mississippi pep band chanted “Where’s your green card?” when Rodriguez had the ball. He is from Puerto Rico. The five racists have had their scholarships revoked.

An anti-Obama bumper sticker was sold on a website owned by Ms. Paula Smith. She is from Hinesville, Georgia. The bumper stick said, “Don’t Re-Nig In 2012” Underneath in small letters it says, “Stop repeat offenders. Don’t reelect Obama!” Ms. Smith said she does not believe it is racist. One of the many wonderful things about the U.S. is: she is entitled to express her opinion no matter how ill-founded in fact it may be. She and everyone else knows “nig” is an offensive truncation of the offensive word nigger. There are those among us who believe racism like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

To be positive about the bumper sticker, one could argue “Don’t Re-Nig In 2012” means do not renege in 2012 and reelect Barack Obama — giving Ms. Smith the best of it not withstanding how racially offensive she knew the bumper sticker was, and she did not want him reelected.

Tolerance is a nation builder and the cornerstone of a liberal democracy — the United States. It is the best country on the planet. A democracy is not a democracy when it is one vote one time — for this is tyranny.

Intolerant racial abuse is alienating, corrosive, culturally poisonous, divisive and not productive.

One of the many wonderful things about the U.S. is the ability to engage in free speech, but can it go too far? When is it abusive and hateful? And if it is, do the victims have to absorb it emotionally? What about the stress it causes to the physical person? There is no way to win against a heckler who spews divisive-abusive attacks on minorities. If we tolerants standby and do nothing about it, are we guilty of the crime of indifference? Censorship is not an option.

To build our national diversity into a cohesive unit, we must have political engagement by all citizens — minorities and the majority without exception. If you give respect, you will receive respect — and both minorities and the majority will emerge with dignity. For dignity and tolerance are nation builders not nation corroders and insidious poisons that invade and conquer with contemn. This is a form of emotional and verbal slavery which shackles the minorities to indignity and disrespect — it is oppressive and repressive.

What is your thought on the contribution hate speech makes to emotional verbal slavery?

What should be done about the intolerants among us — reeducation, but how?

Contacting me with comments and constructive criticisms with honesty and pleasantness their constant companions will always be welcomed.