Opuscula Don’t ALL lives matter? Bringing thinking liberals And conservatives together

A ‘WHITE LIVES MATTER” rally at Texas A&M¹ was cancelled due to fears of violence.

My initial reaction was: “Don’t white lives matter, too?”

Then I read the related article and discovered who was sponsoring the rally and I understood why the school and local authorities pushed back. The sponsors were white supremistsf

I BELIEVE IN FREEDOM OF SPEECH, but I don’t believe in freedom of HATE speech, or speech that inflames or incites people to hurt other people or to damage property.

It makes no difference if the speaker is liberal or conservative, black, white, or “other, male, female, or “other,” or any religion under the sun — or lack thereof. Speeches promoting hate, speeches encouraging one person to attack another person for any reason is not protected by the Constitution or its Amendments. The courts got it right this time.

Political mud-slinging is nothing new in America; it goes back to colonial times.

Disagreements between this group and that also are nothing new in America, Our ancestors fought wars over those disagreements … and thousands of patriots on both sides of the dispute gave their lives for their beliefs.

But do we need another civil war?

And if there IS another civil war, how many innocent bystanders will be considered “collateral damage”?

I have an email acquaintance who is a thinking liberal. The word “thinking” is a critical attribute since my experience with many liberals is that they know they are right and they won’t consider — or even hear — another’s opinion. I have another liberal email acquaintance, an educated woman, who rather than consider an opinion that differs from hers politely asked me to keep my emails to myself — at least when the subject concerns opinions that might offend her sensibilities. I suspect she is, at heart, an ostrich; I doubt she (wo)mans a picket or protest line.

My thinking liberal correspondent, replying to an email from this scrivener, doubted we’d have a civil war between liberals and conservatives. Rather he thinks the war — and unless something is done to mitigate rancor, it is on the horizon — will be between extremists on the left and on the right.

Liberals, he opined, are (present tense) arming themselves. Think about it: liberals are arming themselves. To my Edward Bear mind, “liberal” equates to “gun control” that, in truth, means banning firearms.

Many conservatives already are armed, but, contrary to many liberals’ belief, an armed conservative does not automatically mean an NRA membership or membership in a white supremist, neo-nazi, KKK, or other “hate our neighbor” organization. Lest we forget, there are black hate groups², too, including Black Panthers, Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Party, Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, and not a few anti-white black preachers in churches such as the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ³.

Perhaps — it seems far fetched, but perhaps — if liberals arm themselves, not only can thinking liberals and thoughtful conservatives find common ground, that common ground could be at a firing range — firing at targets, not each other. Imagine.

I didn’t come up with the idea; it sprang from my thinking liberal’s correspondence.

Extremists are forcing both thinking liberals and thoughtful conservatives to join forces to save the nation.

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Web resources

1. http://tinyurl.com/y83uc7tm
2. http://tinyurl.com/y887p87x
3. http://tinyurl.com/yd8wggxq

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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