Volstead Lounge
Seek a Conversation
RECEIVED Thu., June 1, 2017
Dear Editor,
Kudos to Louis Black for discovering – if in a meandering and tepid fashion – the central role played by free speech in the maintenance of a democratic civil society ["Page Two: Unfortunately the Left Is Guilty of Hypocrisy Even If the Right Is More Openly Oppressive," June 2].
The current chaos felt by most of us since last Nov. 8 has more than a few of our fellow country folk shouting down constitutionally protected “hate speech” and swinging bike locks at “fascists.”
If Mr. Black and the rest of us can successfully rehabilitate the notion of moral absolutes: Who knows?
Maybe we can even start having a little gratitude for this opportunity to engage in earnest conversations about our collective future.
Put this paper down now, and go seek out a conversation with a friend that could not be more different than you politically. Stick a sock in your “feelings” and really listen to her/him. See if you can learn something.
I dare you.
A robust commitment to the self-evident morality of free-expression – if a bitter pill for some – offers our best chance of arriving at a more just and equitable America.
When any of us begins to equate speech that we do not like, with “violence”; we slip down a slope where it is too easy to swing bike locks at another in defense of a utopia only we can see.
Kudos to Louis Black for discovering – if in a meandering and tepid fashion – the central role played by free speech in the maintenance of a democratic civil society ["Page Two: Unfortunately the Left Is Guilty of Hypocrisy Even If the Right Is More Openly Oppressive," June 2].
The current chaos felt by most of us since last Nov. 8 has more than a few of our fellow country folk shouting down constitutionally protected “hate speech” and swinging bike locks at “fascists.”
If Mr. Black and the rest of us can successfully rehabilitate the notion of moral absolutes: Who knows?
Maybe we can even start having a little gratitude for this opportunity to engage in earnest conversations about our collective future.
Put this paper down now, and go seek out a conversation with a friend that could not be more different than you politically. Stick a sock in your “feelings” and really listen to her/him. See if you can learn something.
I dare you.
A robust commitment to the self-evident morality of free-expression – if a bitter pill for some – offers our best chance of arriving at a more just and equitable America.
When any of us begins to equate speech that we do not like, with “violence”; we slip down a slope where it is too easy to swing bike locks at another in defense of a utopia only we can see.
Tom Friedley
