PICK AND CHOOSE – INCONVENIENT FACTS
About a week before election day I was out driving through our neighborhood with my wife and daughter when it suddenly occurred to me that I was seeing virtually no political posters or yard signs in yards. Well, actually I saw two. One was a handmade sign for a “new” candidate for City Council and the other was for a popular local State Assemblyman running for re-election and it contained no stated party affiliation.
Following this epiphany I began to seek out political and what might be possibly considered controversial bumper stickers, decals, posters etc. Ones such as NRA – Make America Great Again – just to name a couple. I find few to none.
I have since remembered that prior to the last Presidential Election I was an admirer of Ben Carson who had decided to run for the office of President. I genuinely felt that he had little chance of winning but admired his character, intelligence and integrity. I put one of his bumper stickers on the rear window of our SUV just to show support for his effort. A few days later I found that someone had written RACIST with a broad marker pen across the bumper sticker. I have yet to figure out how my support for Ben Carson could make me a racist but the irrational hate in the message they wrote struck me as a symptom of the division we now have in our land. There has become ample evidence of intolerance, to the point of violence, of public statements which question so-called “Progressive” dogma. Our colleges used to be Citadel’s of the exchange of ideas and Free Speech. No longer. Most of them are now playgrounds for the radical progressive agenda.
When I enlisted in the military we took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. I was also taught that even if I personally disagreed with certain parts of it, I was both morally and duty bound to defend my fellow citizens rights under the Constitution.
In the Bill of Rights the First Amendment states in part:
“Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;”
Yet we now find ourselves so divided that if you say or do or write something the “other side” disagrees with, you can be accused of hate speech and you and your family, even friends, can be subjected to verbal attack, character assassination, even violence and public humiliation. Can jail be far behind? Say the “wrong” thing or put the “wrong” kind of yard sign, bumper sticker or decal in your yard or on your car and risk finding your yard or car “trashed” or severely damaged. The First Amendment has become an inconvenient fact of history and is no longer welcome.
More and more of us seem to live in a kind of “quasi-covert” fear of retribution for making some kind of statement which offends someone or some group even when no offense was intended.
Trying desperately to inject some kind of humor into this observation of life in a cancerous, toxic, politically correct modern day world, let me relate an episode in my past that ends with a simple moral principal.
I once, with tongue in cheek, told my Pastor that should he desire a vacation or day off I would be pleased to Preach in his absence. When he asked me what the subject of my sermon would be, I told him I would be speaking on the Nine Commandments. He said, “You mean the Ten Commandments don’t you?”. I told him “No, I mean the Nine – there is one of them I don’t like” – “The Tenth Commandment tells me I should not lust after my neighbors “stuff” and my neighbor has some really “cool stuff”.
As I remember, I was reminded that Moses did not come down from Mount Sinai with the “Ten Suggestions” etched in stone. They are Commandments which God designed for our own good and ultimate happiness. The same can be said for the Constitution. Our founders designed it for the long term health and goodness of our nation.
Bob Bandy
“And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made.” Paul Simon – “Sound of Silence – 1960”
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