Supposedly, all American citizens have a constitutional right to freedom of speech in accordance with the First Amendment since its ratification on December 15, 1791. For purposes of clarity, we will repeat it here:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or prohibiting the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Clear enough, right? You would think so! Then what place or purpose does Political Correctness have in America? In our opinion, NONE! But we all know that it is not so. Political Correctness has been slowly creeping into our lives and all sorts of things over many years and as such, we have all more or less accepted it when it was applied in moderation. But things are changing fast and we like to focus here on just three examples:
1. At the recent Miss USA contest, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, was asked by a homosexual judge, Perez Hilton, what she thought about same-sex marriage. Her answer was that she personally believed that a marriage should be between a man and a woman! This created a firestorm. Perez Hilton called her on his blog ‘a dumb bitch’, others referred to her in similar vile and even more hateful fashion. Some say, that her answer cost her the crown (she was runner-up to Miss North Carolina). We do not know if that is true but we think that she does not deserve this vicious treatment. If you enter a contest and have to answer along the foggy lines of Political Correctness instead of being able to express your personal beliefs any longer, then we have lost of constitutional right to freedom of speech. This is shameful!
2. On April 15, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in great numbers in cities across America to participate in so called ‘Tea Parties’. Every one of these gatherings were peaceful events and no arrests had to be made by police. It was an exercise of the right of the people peaceably to assemble. The folks were merely peaceably assembling to show their dislike towards the excessive amount of deficit spending by the government, both the Executive and the Legislative branches. The main stream (liberal) media mostly ignored these events as they happened yet could not help themselves from criticizing these ‘tea parties’ and invited others to speak out about that. One such person was a woman by the name of Janeane Garofalo who declared on live television (MSNBC) and we quote: ” that the people who attended were a bunch of teabagging rednecks, this is all about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.” Now then, Ms. Garafolo has the right to freedom of speech but why was she not called for not being aligned with some Political Correctness. The answer is simple: It’s a Liberal Double Standard! They have the right to freedom of speech while they deny this right to others!
3. This is even scarier: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security now headed up by former Arizona Democrat Governor Janet Napolitano, issued on April 14, 2009, a nine page memo entitled:
Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. You should Google as we did for Department of Homeland Security memos and you will find several headings for ‘Right Wing Extremism’, any one article will give you the details including the full text of the Department’s memo. Outrageous is not an adequate word to describe this reality. The Department of Homeland was created not too many years ago to provide protection for all Americans; it is now singling out a certain group of people they think are extremists (and therefore a danger to our country as a whole). They even included returning war veterans as being potential recruits by right-wing extremists. The point in all this: If a U.S. governmental agency can classify citizens as dangerous when all they do is express their opinions and using their constitutional right of free speech, then we are as a country in deeper trouble than we think we are.
This all deserves monitoring and we should not accept when basic constitutional right of the people are being reduced or taking away. A serious debate about Political Correctness should be started on a nationwide basis. We here at Common Sense University believe that we should do away with it and just live in accordance with the Constitution of this great country of ours. It worked for nearly two hundred years and we do not need this claptrap of behavioral enhancement.
Yeah, I’ll go head and post a simple point of thought for each of your bullets.
1. Perez Hilton has the same free-speech as Carrie Prejean. She has a right to disagree with gay marriage. You say that her response is disregarded because political correctness. Yet you disregard Hilton’s “Stupid bitch” comment in the same judgemental way. Please don’t pick and choose your political correctness.
2. Ignorance of the poorly educated is, thank God, a wonderful aspect of the media’s freedom of speech (and coverage) choice. You’re liberal double standard is the educated reporters’ basic right. Ms. Garrafola has press-time because she is a celebrity. And let’s face it, celebrity draws viewers. Media outlets want viewers, and thus revenues. That’s not a double standard. That’s American Capitalism at work.
3. Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombings. Do your research. Otherwise we might have another one. And who knows if you’ll be getting your Social Security card replaced that day.
Freedom of speech is a right, yes. But you can’t scream “Fire” in a crowded theater if there isn’t one. It’s not allowed because it harms others under a false pretense. Why shouldn’t we at least be disinclined to keep hate and ignorant speech to a minimum as well? You have a right to say certain things, yet you don’t have the right to be in the right if you are in the wrong. Your article is one of these examples.