Fighting Hate Speech With More Speech
Dean
Joe Gandelman worries that criticism of Cindy Sheehan may provoke a popular backlash.
I think, however, that Jeff Goldstein has the best and most measured response to that concern.
Cindy Sheehan has asked for attention, in a world where her free speech is as protected as ours. So far as I am concerned, this has nothing to do with "defending the President" (he's a big boy, he can take care of himself) and everything to do with countering the horrible fascist propaganda she's been spouting--about how our people over there are just murdering and killing, about how those who died did so for nothing, and so on.
Those of us who've got family and friends over there have a right to respond to the things Sheehan is saying. She's not a martyr--she's a person who suffered a horrible loss but instead of respecting her son's choices she's trying to use his death in a cause he almost certainly wouldn't agree with, and that most of her family doesn't agree with. It's not mean or nasty to point this out, and neither is it mean and nasty to point to the horrible people she's snuggling up with and accepting help from.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Thoughtful Post of the Week
- "She does not speak for me"
- Fighting Hate Speech With More Speech
- Cindy Sheehan's entourage: changes in the anti-war movement
From the Left:
"There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos."
-Jim Hightower
From the Right:
"The middle of the road is like an ----hole: it's round and it stinks."
-Roberto D'Aubisson
"In any conflict, there are two sides. One side is right, and the other side is wrong. But the middle is always evil."
-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
I'm EXTREMELY glad I'm not a "moderate". As a great Conservative once said: "I am a Right-Wing Extremist. Whatever is not extremely right is not right. Whatever is not right is wrong."
I loathe and despise Cindy Sheehan and every one of her supporters and anybody who thinks she has anything worth $.0001 to say about anything. I support ONLY her son Casey and every one of our brave soldiers who have given their lives or are standing ready to give their lives to defend our freedom. Yes, this War -- this whole War Against the Muslim Terror Masters, not only that section of it that is now taking place in Iraq -- is a noble cause. This is a Crusade to save America and our Western Civilization. We must fight to win.
As a Right-Wing Extremist, I believe in the First Amendment absolutely, as I also believe absolutely in the Second Amendment. Let her and her mob of traitors blather on all they want and discredit themselves all the more, more and ever more with each passing day (as they have been doing every day since 9/11/2001), in the eyes of every loyal American, true European, and self-respecting Jew.
And, oh yes, by the way: I SUPPORT ISRAEL 100%. Every enemy of Israel is my enemy.
And an ex-wife today.
What a nutjob.
Her messy divorce from reality.....That's a different story!
He WANTED to join. He OPTED OF HIS OWN FREE WILL to do so. Mommy needs to accept that fact. I am sorry he died, it pains me to know any of America's warriors die in her service, but he thought service to his nation was more important than his single life. Who can say how many he saved by giving his own of his free will?
In the great cosmic scales (just for you Dean) or in the Court of God (for us 'sane' folks...hehehe) one life given for many is a treasured and hallowed gift that can not be returned, or refused by some that wish not to have it done on their behalf. He was a bigger person than she to be able to accept this.
It is brutal in war, young men and women die (how many 'leaders' of America today served in the military...care to wager a guess?). But they do not die 'in vain' and I despise those that say they do. To save one life, with the loss of their own, is not 'in vain'. To save many lives with the loss of their own is not 'in vain'.
While I mourn her son, and the loss she has suffered, he was a grown man that chose to RE-ENLIST. He thought his service was important enough to continue it. That speaks volumes for his charecter. Pity is her behaviour speaks volumes for her's as well...and none of it is as good as his.
You are being overly polite. After having seen what slanders have been thrown at Michelle Malkin by the Left, I'm realizing that sometimes you've got to call these people on the carpet for their actions. They have the freedom to speak, but they also must take responsibility for what they say.
Cindy Sheehan is nuts, and her husband realized that and is divorcing her. I don't find anything honorable in what she is doing, and since I have a loved one in the USMC right this minute I don't appreciate the comfort she is giving our enemies.
She is surrounding herself with our society's vermin like Lynn Stewart and David Duke. The same people who have been raising crosses in the anti-war movement are the ones demanding that any mention of it be expunged in public life.
Is mentioning the divorce hitting below the belt? Perhaps. But this is a streetfight, and we'd better recognize it as such.
I'm pretty happy I've missed most of it. It looks as if it has been pretty ugly.
"Boy, I've been on vacay since last Thursday and I come back to this.
I'm pretty happy I've missed most of it. It looks as if it has been pretty ugly."
One side of it has been pretty ugly -- the Communist (Sheehan's) side. We anti-Communists are just exposing the ugly treasonous lies she spews.
The idea that Hitchens is so right on this issue, and has been so off on so many others for so wrong, does kind of throw a monkey wrench into the Malcolmsonian moderation- in- defense- of- liberty- is- no- virtue post, which I did like. But it's great fodder for my own old reliable trope, which is that while I can't stand liberalism I have always found that bona fide radicals (not to be confused with mere fringe nuts or party faithful) have interesting things to say.