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09/08/2010
And by 'liberals', @ChrisRBarron of course means 'straw men'
This from gay conservative and GOProud head Chris Barron:
Okay, let's break it down.
(a) We've heard several people defending the right to burn this book. Most prominently, Mayor Bloomberg has come out in support of Terry Jones' constitutional right to set it afire. He's hardly a liberal. But Bloomberg is far from alone. Anecdotally, this writer has discussed this very topic with numerous politically-minded folks, with most "liberals" i know supporting the act of matching a match with a book, as far as it goes.
(b) But that support for the right itself doesn't mean these same supporters are barred from condemning the act as disrespectful, demeaning, or even dangerous. That is the part b of most people's support for Jones' 1st Amendment rights: That just because he can do it, it doesn't mean he should. So it's wrong-headed to assume that anyone who speaks out against the action and its implications is being hostile to the freedom of religion/speech/expression right attached to it. Most are not.
One can go to court to defend someone's basic American right, but it doesn't mean they're gonna invite the bonehead over for a celebratory bonfire afterward.
(c) It's beyond false to make a direct connection between negative reaction to Terry Jones and any positive support that's been shown towards the Park 51 Islamic center that's to be built two blocks away from Ground Zero. Because in reality, both Jones' action and the hostility towards the Park51 development raise questions about Islam and how the religion and its adherents are treated here in America. Those who question the motives of both Jones and the most heated of Park 51 opponents are staying logically consistent!
(d) Why the need to partisan-ize these situations at all? Hopefully (or at least ideally) the vast majority of the public wants to protect the 1st Amendment, defend everyone's most basic of freedoms, protect our troops from any and all retaliation, and defend other faiths (in this case, largely evangelical Christianity) against any sort of negative connotation that something like Islamophobia may bring. One should be able to recognize those most basic realities/needs, whether aboard a donkey or an elephant!
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