Editor’s note: Due to an error at the Summit Daily News, this column did not appear on the date originally scheduled.
Growing up, I often heard, “I disagree with what you say, but I’m going to fight for your right to say so.” World War II veterans shaped the political and cultural landscape of the time, and most of the fathers in my neighborhood had served in some form of military service, which shaped their worldview. These veterans had fought and watched their friends die around the world, resisting fascism, communism, and totalitarian aggression. Though imperfect, they knew how lucky they were to live in the United States, where they could speak truth to power.
Sadly, this concept is endangered in the age of social media and the ever-evolving “hate speech” codes that sweep our nation’s education system, government institutions, and popular culture. We’ve reached the edge of insanity. If you misgender someone, you’ll probably be ostracized, attacked, slammed, canceled, fired, or labeled a “hater,” but in the 21st century, you’ll be shunned, attacked, slammed, canceled, fired, or labeled a “hater.”st Despite the 21st century holocaust against Jewish students and Israel, you are free to vandalize, trespass, intimidate, assault and cause chaos with complete impunity in many cases.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging 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.” The authors of this article still had fresh memories of the War of Independence. They feared unchecked government power. Many had been expelled from England for their anti-establishment religious beliefs that got in the way of the Church of England. If the supreme rights of the individual were to be protected, then the ability to oppose elected officials and the policies of the ruling majority without fear of arrest or death was an essential fundamental human right that must be protected. No amendment has been more cleverly manipulated than the First Amendment.
Inalienable rights under the Constitution are a social contract and carry with them mutual responsibilities. No matter how much I may disagree with your message, you have the right to stand peacefully in the public square, hold up a sign, and shout “From the River to the Sea,” but you do not have the right to obstruct, intimidate, assault, or threaten passersby. You do not have the right to damage public property, deface monuments, trespass, block public roads, disrupt graduation ceremonies, leave piles of trash, or defecate on the front steps of a courthouse. And you definitely do not have the right to physically enforce the desired outcome of your slogans.
As a signatory to the biweekly public comment sheet, if you believe your policy positions are right, show up proudly and sign what you write for the whole world to see and read. Cowards and terrorists hide behind masks, umbrellas, violence and the darkness of night to spread fear, hatred and anarchy. Show up when you are shouting death to America, death to Israel, burning the flag and calling for jihad (a word I can assure you most of these “protesters” do not understand). Covering your face or hiding your hateful ideology and criminal acts behind the anonymity of a mob violates peaceful social debate.
Be careful what you wish for. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. They embrace and exploit the desire of modern anarchist and socialist movements to superimpose the Palestinian cause onto an oppressor versus oppressed orthodoxy, so long as it suits their media purposes. But it is fundamentally at odds with the hardline Islamist worldview of governments such as Iran and its proxy militias and states.
Moral equivalence is the Achilles heel of the modern left, and these dangerously ignorant firebrands have a lifelong immersion in dystopian moral associations. University administrators have clearly fallen into their own ideological trap.
Students who engage in inflammatory, threatening or illegal behavior should be expelled. As for students who have been suspended or expelled, I would like to reinstate those who wear masks, scarves and genocide badges and walk through any Holocaust museum in the country, or through Auschwitz or other Nazi concentration camps. I believe that after that, they will be more careful in choosing their words, actions, friends and educational institutions.
Bruce Butler’s column, “Common Sense Conversations,” appears in the Summit Daily News every other Tuesday. Butler is a former Silverthorne mayor and city council member and has lived in the city for 20 years. He can be reached at butlerincolorado@gmail.com.
