The LuLac Edition #2822, January 21st, 2015
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WRITE ON WEDNESDAY
Je suis Charlie.
Despite not speaking a word of French -- and even with its pricey rate -- $186 a year -- I've just bought a year's subscription to Charlie Hebdo. Like back in first grade, I won't be able to read the words but I should be able to figure out the pictures. And the purchase is a small statement that we're not going to put up with this kind of outrage without responding.
I know it's not much, but it's the only solidarity I can express right now.
Along with writing this.
For, while it's obviously no comparison, I've seen a little too close for comfort what the crazies can do when they don't agree with something that appears in the free marketplace of ideas.
In my case, it was a column I wrote for the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader a while ago. It attacked the National Rifle Association, which I continue to believe is one of the foulest, most malignant tumors on America. It was a tad biting. Here's the ending:
"The strongest lobby in America isn't big business, isn't big oil, it's big gun," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said, urging Americans "to stand up and say we've lost too many children."
We have. We do. We will, until we put down our guns. And that isn't likely as long as the NRA continues to stand for No Rational Arguments and No Reality Allowed.
But the NRA's big lie continues to convince Americans that without our precious guns we are in peril.
Sadly, we know all too well that there's a very real possibility that "the great masses of people ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one."
Adolph Hitler wrote that in "Mein Kampf" in 1933.
I received 138 responses within 72 hours -- something I believe was orchestrated by the well-oiled media machine of the NRA. Among these were several death threats -- which I took seriously -- along with this kind of trash:
"YOU KNOW WHAT? S**** YOU AND YOUR ******* IDIOTIC STATEMENT ON THE NRA. I AM IN THE NRA. ARE YOU WILLING TO KILL ME TO GET MY GUN? BECAUSE IF YOU'RE NOT, YOU ARE NOT GONNA GET IT ************. **** YOU."
Because of this I feel an extremely close kinship to the men and women of Charlie Hebdo. France, both democratic and secular, has a long proud tradition of satire and pricking over-stuffed balloons and Charlie was just honoring this long-standing tradition.
A tradition we must defend absolutely, at all times. That's why I am a card-carrying (I always wanted to say that!) member of the ACLU because I believe in the absolute right to free speech, even when it makes me sick to my stomach as with ACLU's backing of the rights of the Ku Klux Klan in Skokie.
But that's the whole point. Majority views we don't have to worry about, but we MUST protect all the idiotic, hateful, spiteful, mean and just downright crazy points of view if the phrase "freedom of the press" is to have any real meaning.
The Charlie Hebdo staffers are true martyrs for the cause of free speech. I raise a toast to them.
As for their attackers, all fluent in French, I have only this to say:" Brule en enfer": Burn in Hell.
posted by David Yonki @ 9:17 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I have a feeling the milennial generation doesn't share our respect for the second amendment... I fear one day a convention will be called and that our right to bear arms will change. It may not disappear, but I don't believe it will be a right fifty years from now.
So, let's review: you wouldn't accept a proposal from a duly elected constitutional convention that was ratified by the states. And yet apparently you're armed. Hmmmm.
Do the millenials believe in the Constitution more than you?
Bob is dead wrong about the NRA. As to the ACLU: pure pestilence.
I would not sacrifice a drop of urine for Charlie Hebdo.
They sacrificed their lives because they published pictures and printed "satire" based on religious figures involved in anal sex and homo-erotic sadism? Excuse me?
Enjoy your subscription pal. Hope your grandchildren don't get a hold of it while visiting. They'll never be able to look you in the eye again and you'll never know why.
I don't care how much you raise a toast to this trash, if you were my father I'd have a hard time coming to terms with it. #lostallrespect
Tough comments. I'm a gun owner and I have a license to carry and I do carry. These are crazy times and noone is safe anywhere. The crazies have shot people in church, restaurants and other public places so I carry and tht meakes me feel safe.
There are many concerns about gun control but when has this president or any other tried to capture all guns or remove anyone's right to own a gun. It was never done and never intended but the NRA preaches to the gun crazies to keep their membership up and their money flowing in. Most Americans including me are in favor of background checks
but the NRA have the no brains up in arms against them. Now that's what I call crazy. I love the idea of a background check and I don't care how often they do one on me. If it turns out I have a mental problem then I do not have the "right" to own or carry a gun. Rember that most people with mental problems don't know it.
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