downtown Denver in my rental car, I was stuck behind a truck at a red
light. When I focused on the imagery on the truck, I saw aborted
fetuses on posters. They were grotesque. I was a captive audience
sitting there in my car.
I found myself thinking of the 1st Amendment, and the right these
people have to make their point. I am a great respector of free speech
even when I feel the message is repulsive and simplistic, as I felt
sitting behind that truck. I wanted my own truck depicting the
imagery of women making that most personal and wrenching of decisions.
What that imagery would be, I don't know -- how do you depict the
anguish of the heart, and the desperation of circumstance?-- but I
wanted to respond.
And now, Monday, I'm in the Black Caucus session where African
American leaders are at the podium addressing the crowd. An anti-
abortion heckler just stood up and interrupted the speaker.
I couldnt help but reflect that so many anti-abortipnists are men.
The man was escorted out, to chants of O-Ba-Ma. And the speeches
continued.
The truck and the man were a way to get 10 seconds of attention, not a
way to inform or change minds. But this is an issue that pushes us to
those extremes.
Of course I would have preferred to have seen/heard neither. But free
speech is only free speech if those whose messages we abhor have the
same right to speak as we do.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for this reminder of the power and principle of free speech. I know that it can be so very hard to listen to voices and messages that are hugely contrary to what I believe. I know also that the Rule of the Bushies has actively squelched dissenting speech, at all levels ... I am afraid that the young folk who have grown up under their autocratic rule may not know of an America where dissenting voices are not just tolerated but encouraged. And so I hope that our National Democratic Convention will be somewhat messy and unscripted and that the speakers and delegates will make clear that this is to be welcomed .. this is the America we ought to have, as guaranteed by our Constitution. The anti-abortionist speaker was removed for bad manners, I think, for trying to take away someone else's right to speak not because of what he had to say.
So I wish you, and all the delegates the requisite patience and compassion, and the strength that comes from our core beliefs to show the nation what a free convention looks like. So our leaders and speakers can draw the contrast between suppression and freedom.
And I wish you courage, joy, tenacity, fortitude, hope, empathy, unity, and unbridled enthusiasm as you do the work of nominating Senator Barack Obama to be our next President.
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