Enough with the Free Speech Thing Already

Hating to pay even meager additional attention to the Magilla from Wasilla that is Sarah (sigh) Palin, it has now become impossible not to comment on her latest, and perhaps most egregious misapplication of the notion of "freedom" since she burst upon us fully formed as the elderly McCain's doomed VP choice.

We won't spend a minute talking about the Tragedy in Tucson, since we can add nothing to the discussion not already said.

But we will talk about the notion of what "freedom of speech" really means, and why Palin and everyone who has ever invoked "free speech" when stung by criticism, has it all backwards. As a case in point, the bespectacled Palin, in a wanna-be-Presidential moment, took to the viral-video-sphere with a Tucson-inspired diatribe about how people who criticize her are somehow invading her right as a citizen to speak out.

Gag me, as was once upon a time asserted quite effectively, with a spoon.

Here is the news:

The constitutional notion of freedom of speech posits that the government can make no law preventing free expression of ideas.

And that's it.

If people don't like what you say, if people criticize you, if your words make them angry and not want to vote for you, if they call you names and find you tacky--too bad. In no way does "freedom of speech" ever, ever mean "freedom from criticism by other citizens". When your words are criticized, that is a function of OTHER PEOPLE exercizing their right to free speech. No amount of opprobrium from others who disagree with you can ever amount to an abrogation of your free speech rights.

"Freedom of Speech" means only this: that the government can make no law restricting it.

Get used to it, Ms. Palin, and stop being a crybaby.

A Protest at My Child's High School

I know this will sound cryptic, but my child attends a well-regarded high school in a borough of the City of New York, and that is as specific as I am going to get about that subject.

But what I will get specific about is that there was a protest there yesterday.

It was a protest against the school. And it was a protest especially against the school's heretofore not-very-noteworthy (in NY at least) diversity. Apparently there are a great number of Asians, Arabs, Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, Persians, Hispanics, African-Americans, Albanians, Russians and heaven knows what other New York-ish sub-subcultural representatives prowling the halls of this wonderful school.

And apparently at least one group of outsiders, from somewhere in the great prairies of this nation, believes this is cause for alarm. This cult-like group--I think they are called "the Phelps Clan" or something like that--makes a point of protesting against progressivism in a manner the perversity of which I can only reluctantly begin to understand. For instance, they protested at the funeral of the young gay man who was beaten to death for being gay in Wyoming (they said he was going to hell). They have protested at the funerals of men and women soldiers killed in our current crop of overseas adventures (I have no idea why, but it seems perverse and wrong to do so).

And now they have taken their protests to the streets of the populous, incredibly diverse boroughs here in New York. I am not certain why they picked my child's high school, except that it is well known and as diverse as any in the city, but I think it's because it isn't very far from the synagogue at which they plan to protest on Saturday.

That's right. They are protesting against Jews in New York.

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing that we must all celebrate. However, the meaning of it is often lost. Freedom of speech is attained via laws prohibiting the government from taking action against free speech; in other words, when the government is thereby prohibited from stopping people from saying what they want.

Freedom of speech is not about one individual making certain another individual gets to shoot his or her mouth off until everyone's ears are red.

So, armed with these facts, can we urge ourselves to perhaps find this clan of simpletons where they sleep and, with heavy complements of duct-tape, wrap their heads in it such that they cannot utter a word of protest against diversity?

I am looking for volunteers.