“Johnny, why is your brother crying?” “He called me a name so I punched him in the face!” “Why did you shoot up a Republican baseball practice?” “Because Trump made some inane tweet so I shot ’em.”
Really? Has our reaction to discourse become so juvenile that mere words cause unhinged, violent eruptions? How many times as a kid did you come in off the playground whimpering to your mom that some playmate had said something that hurt your infantile feelings and your mom said, “Sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you”? If she didn’t, she should have. That same motherly wisdom is still valid today, and if it isn’t, it should be.
But the absurd assumption that a Republican President’s (you fill in the blank with whatever denigrating adjective you want to describe them) tweets, statements or anything else that, at random, seems to leak out of his mouth, is responsible for political violence is ridiculous and insulting to any rational adult. (I intentionally excluded the obviously irrational and deranged adults that commit violence as they are insane, not political.)
I applaud the 21-year-old grad from Whitewater High and current UGA student for not hiding in a college “safe space” and putting his words out there to be openly discussed. A “safe space” should never be a physical location on any campus where you can be sheltered from disagreeable ideas that you’re unable to rationally and thoughtfully oppose.
It will not protect you from the real world. The only real physical safe spaces are in cemeteries. A true safe space on campus or any other place is intellectual. Having the knowledge, experience, and ability to understand ideas, yours as well as those you intellectually oppose and rationally articulating those arguments through discourse, ideally civilly, but in whatever form of debate where a coherent exchange of ideas can be made.
It’s through verbal interaction and the sometimes fierce exchanges, however unpleasant, that we learn from each other. And there is a lot to learn that may have been missed in a Whitewater High Civics class (if they even teach Civics anymore) and needs to be learned in a UGA Western Civilization course (if they even teach that anymore).
Every example of violence cited in the article was committed by the Left. When was the last time the Tea Party rioted in the streets protesting the election of a Democrat, shut down intersections, burned cars and store fronts, ran liberal speakers off stage preventing them from speaking, ran patrons out of restaurants, took over a college campus to get a professor fired, went to private homes terrifying families and children of people with viewpoints different than theirs, completely misrepresenting interactions with citizens by police in what was blatantly criminal behavior? And I could go on.
This has happened routinely by liberal groups and largely either supported or ignored by the Democrat Party but rarely if ever condemned by it.
And if this is being caused by statements by President Trump, in many cases taken clearly out of context or twisted into something it wasn’t ever intended to be, and then tell me again, whose problem is this really?
When you have a news media that well over 90 percent of the time covers this president in a negative light, day after day, story after story, and panel of experts after panel of experts in every denigrating way imaginable rarely presenting legitimate opposing views, who are the real deranged people here?
Why shouldn’t the media take some “personal responsibility” in what is clearly skewed reporting? Is it any wonder folks on the Left are becoming unhinged when they hear nothing else including what you are learning (or not learning) at UGA?
I don’t remember anyone on the Right becoming unhinged when Obama (more eloquently) denigrated the American people for clinging to their guns and religion or for the police acting stupidly in the execution of their duties or Eric Holder when he essentially called Americans closet racists. Seems to me the folks on the Right are the adults in the room.
White supremacists (American Nazi Party) in Charlottesville are from the left, leftovers of the old KKK who were for the most part southern Democrats. It’s assumed that since Nazi Germany fought Communist Russia in WWII that one was from the right and the other from the left. Wrong.
Nazi is the National SOCIALIST Party. The Communists and National Socialists were essentially two versions of a very similar ideology. No rational person thinks this small group of supremacists is anything other than lunatics. The tragedy of Charlottesville could have easily been avoided had the Democratic mayor taken the rational precaution of separating the rival groups to other areas of the city and not restrained police presence. It was as if they wanted an incident of happen to splash on the media for political purposes.
In a similar demonstration weeks prior at a nearby city, that’s exactly what law enforcement did and had no incidents. Newnan officials did the same thing recently again with no incidents. I won’t speculate on whether there was a political motivation for the mayor’s incompetent action but I’m sure it will be sorted out in the mountain of wrongful death lawsuits against Charlottesville.
The quote used from Andrew Gillum on whether Trump is a racist or not is as daffy as it can get. To paraphrase it back on him: it doesn’t necessarily matter if Gillum himself is clueless but if he keeps making statements like that people will be emboldened to believe that he is.
The Supreme Court nominee was hardly crammed down anyone’s throat. Kavanaugh’s confirmation took much longer than average. While the selection of the Prom Queen may be a popularity contest, the selection of a Supreme Court justice is not. It is completely irrelevant of what the candidate’s favorable levels are. The selection is based on competency and proven performance.
As for the “multiple credible accounts of sexual assault,” two of the “credible witnesses” are under investigation by the DOJ for giving false statements. Why should it be assumed that Ms. Ford’s statement is credible without any corroborating evidence and Judge Kavenaugh’s equally compelling statement is not? Are we also to assume that if Ms. Ford’s statement is to be believed, then the four witnesses who denied under oath it ever occurred are lying? Why are their statements not equally as credible?
And the real proof that this whole affair was a political stunt orchestrated by the Senate Democrats is that after Judge Kavenaugh’s confirmation, the issue was completely dropped. If there were “credible accounts,” the accusers would be hounding at his door with a long trail of politicians to push it along.
Now for a quick Civics lesson that might have been missed at Whitewater. This government is not a pure democracy. It was never intended to be ruled by a simple majority — ever. Read the Federalist Papers.
Pure democracies don’t work, which the ancient Greeks found out and you will or should learn in Western Civ. at UGA.
This government is a constitutional republic composed of sovereign states that democratically elect representatives to govern. Each state has an equal say in the Senate (two senators each) and a proportional voice in the House based on population. Added together, that gives the electoral votes to the Electoral College.
As Hamilton states in Federalist 68; “if the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent.” This was specifically done to prevent the population centers at the time of the Constitutional Convention (Boston, Philadelphia, New York City) from having inordinate power over less populous states like Georgia or a majority of the less populous states having inordinate power over states where major populations live.
Do you really want Los Angeles and New York City running the country? And whether you like it or not, North Dakota is still part of the Union.
I am constantly astounded at the constitutional ignorance of our nationally elected officials. Hillary Clinton’s statements on this issue were an embarrassment. Doesn’t say much for Whitewater High either if you didn’t learn it there or your folks definitely need their money back if not learned at UGA.
What is of greatest concern to me are the concluding statements made and very disconcerting coming from an intelligent college student. Doing away with an essential aspect of our electoral process (Electoral College) because you can’t get what you want in a free and fair elections which represent all the people in all the states will indeed make this government fragile.
And the truly frightening schoolyard mentality of essentially “you say something mean to me, I’ll punch you in the face” is not a failure of civil discourse, it’s a collapse of moral character and humanity by the puncher.
And if you and your college friends really think this is where we’re headed, y’all better grow up pretty fast. Sticks and stones will most definitely break your bones, but words cannot hurt you and the effective expression of those words, no matter how inarticulate, clumsy, nasty, uncivil, whatever form taken is vital to the functioning of a free society.
Joust with your words, not your fists. Remember, the pen is mightier than the sword. (P.S.: Every college student should read the Federalist Papers. Have a cup of coffee or a Red Bull handy.)
Dennis D. Benson
Captain, United States Navy [ret.]
Peachtree City, Ga.
Excellent! Well said and spot on!