In the news recently, Governor Sarah Palin was extremely upset about a joke David Letterman told about her daughter being “knocked-up” by a Yankees baseball player. Admittedly it was in very poor taste, as Letterman himself agreed. It has been suggested that Gov. Palin was protecting her child, which is understandable if that was, in fact, her motive. However, I doubt this joke will incite rapist or child molesters to increase their activity. Nor will it, as Gov. Palin suggested in her response, “contribute to the high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.” Mr. Letterman apologized but not to the satisfaction of some. There are those who have called for him to be fired.
This reminded me of the controversy and firing of Don Imus in 2007 over his racial slur about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. The Rev. Jesse Jackson called the firing “a victory for public decency.” Rev. Al Sharpton said, “It’s not about taking Imus down, it’s about lifting decency up.”
I am not condoning what either Letterman or Imus said, but they were insensitive jokes, the only goal being to draw laughter. As a mother and non-racist, I thought both comments were uncalled for and not particularly funny. But I am not at all sure how making a spectacle of and firing Imus will affect public decency or lift it up or how Letterman’s crude joke will alter comedic language.
Others, however, are using far more incendiary language on a regular basis with impunity. It seems Free Speech is free for some people but not for others. Some examples:
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, 30% of the (estimated 5000) completed youth suicides every year are homosexuals between the ages of 15-24. The number of homosexual murders increased by 28% in 2008, 29 killings last year (report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs). These also are someone’s children.
The callous, insidious anti-gay speech that evangelicals, other Christian ministers, and some right wing TV and radio personalities spew over this land via the airways most assuredly attributes to and incites these hate crimes committed by those who believe, beyond any doubt, the language of these ‘authority figures’. Why else would such atrocities occur? Who else instills these thoughts on a continual basis, ad nauseum?
Many Christians, Christian organizations, and Right Wing pundits publicly demonized recently murdered abortion provider, Dr George Tiller. They certainly utilized their free speech rights with the same incendiary remarks about abortion as with the gay community. Dr. Tiller was a father and a grandfather. I’m sure his cruel, untimely murder will affect his children for the rest of their lives.
Terry Randall, the founder of Operation Rescue ,called Dr. Tiller a “mass murderer” and “we grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God.”
Bill O’Reilly of Fox News has for years called Dr. George Tiller “Tiller the baby killer” and described his clinic as a “death mill.”
Rush Limbaugh, who coined the term “feminazis,” says “he used the term to describe women who are obsessed with perpetuating a modern day holocaust: abortion.”
The late Jerry Farwell blamed 911 on the feminists, homosexuals, and abortion rights supporters.
Mother Teresa in her many travels around the world said, “the greatest threat to peace is abortion.”
Pope Benedict XVI said, “Abortion is a crime of aggression not only against the unborn, but also against society.”
There are countless ministers who convey thoughtless, cruel remarks to their congregations every Sunday morning. They know there are dangerous and twisted organizations and deranged individuals who will act on their words. When someone does act on their hatred, these messengers claim they mean no harm, they are only stating God’s word and reinforcing biblical principles. Their words have power and they know it.
Why do we put up with this? Why aren’t they fired? Because their God is on their side and they have far too many who believe what they say.
The Army of God’s web site is a training ground for Christian fundamentalist terrorism. Operations Rescue is not the peaceful pro- life organization it claims to be. Check both sites out and see for yourself.
Free speech is a wonderful gift, but words have power and consequences. They make an impression on the listener. If the listener and the person/s exercising their free speech cannot discern odious, inflammatory speech from decent speech or a joke, then they have a serious problem and society is in trouble.
Why is it a comedian can lose his job and be publicly ostracized because of an “offensive” joke that won’t incite murder or bombings or cause child molesters to go on a rampage, yet media hacks on the right and fundamentalist ministers can say anything they want, no matter how cruel, immoral, or offensive, as long as they do so in the name of God and their biblical interpretation of morality?
Gov. Palin is not without her own offensive, even dangerous rhetoric which she uses to enhance her political ambitions. So I must ask her, “Hasn’t something gone awry with free speech and what offends when public spectacles are made of a few people who tell insensitive jokes while many others are allowed to express their vehement hatred in public with nary a wrist slap?”
You betcha!
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3 comments
Joel says:
July 15, 2009 at 10:40 am (UTC -5 )
Not a fan of Palin
Stephen says:
June 26, 2009 at 5:18 pm (UTC -5 )
Hey, Daredevil. Thanks for exercising your right to free speech, although Im afraid youve wasted your energy considering the audience of this website.
Daredevil says:
June 24, 2009 at 11:05 pm (UTC -5 )
The fact that Tiller was killed by a murderer does not make him less of a butcher. It is not cruel to state the truth. The reason why Christian churches can preach abortion is murder or gay lifestyle is sin is 1) freedom of religion and 2) that is what they believe from the Bible.
Funny we don\’t hear about the times when abortion doctors try to run over peaceful pro-life protesters wit their cars. We don\’t hear about brutal beatings done by pro-choicers on pro-lifers. Or actual murders by pro-choicers of pro-lifers. Or bombings or attempting bombings of pro-life offices and churches. Those do exist as documented here:
http://tree-in-the-sea.blogspot.com/2008/05/pro-abortion-violence.html
If we go by your logic, the denials of these things by pro-choicers show they are not peaceful themselves. You are living in glasshouses.
Statistically the number of folks pro-choicers murder, even outside of abortion, far outnumber those done by the pro-lifers.
And lest you want to argue that abortion done by Tiller is not murder tell that to those who love and care for Sarah Brown.
What is more cruel? Words that condemn the things Tiller did or the things Tiller actually did do? You cannot have it both ways. If it is cruel to say he murdered babies and say that cause the death of him, then by your own logic, it is cruel to paint those who say such things as causing his death thus murderers themselves, so that in your logic create possibility folks might gun down the pro-lifers (which has happened).
And here is the info on Sarah Brown for you that lay waste to the argument Tiller does not go after healthy babies:
http://www.montfort.org.br/index.php?secao=imprensa&subsecao=mundo&artigo=19980928&lang=eng
The story of Sarah Brown
California Right to Life
Baby girl Sarah was born on July 15, 1993, in Wichita, Kansas. She had survived a late term abortion attempt on her 15 year old mother. The infant’s mother had been brought nine hundred miles by her parents, to the office of George Tiller, infamous late term abortionist of Wichita, Kansas. This is the same clinic and the same abortionist who recently was contacted by Arizona authorities to commit a late term abortion on a 14 year old Arizona ward of the courts who was 26 weeks pregnant.
The partial-birth abortion procedure was not yet in vogue. Sarah, as she was later named by her adoptive parents, was already positioned in the womb to be born. The abortionist injected the baby’s head, in two places, the left side of her forehead above the eyebrow and at the base of the skull, with potassium Chloride, leaving permanent burn marks and needle track scars. The pregnant 15 year old left the office with the admonition to return the next day for the completion of the abortion.
Much to everyone’s dismay, the baby had not died in the intervening hours, but was still alive. The 15 year old was sent to the local hospital where the baby was eventually born. The delivery room staff, familiar with handling Tiller’s mistakes, wrapped up the baby, set her in a bassinet and left her without attendance. The 15 year old girl and her parents went home.
Twenty-four hours later though she had not been cleaned up, the umbilical cord had been improperly severed and she had had no nourishment, Sarah continued to live. A nurse in the newborn unit of the hospital finally took pity on the child. She called an attorney with whom she was familiar and explained the situation. The attorney called Bill and Mary Kay Brown and asked them to come to the hospital and rescue this remarkable child.
Though hospital staff predicted that the baby would not survive more than 8 weeks,Bill and Mary Kay and their seven children took Sarah home, adopted her and loved her till the day she died of kidney failure, at age five. If she had received attention during that 24 hour period, some of the effects of the brain damage might have been lessened. Only when the Brown’s filed for adoption was the child issued a birth certificate.
The potassium Chloride destroyed the left portion of Sarah’s brain leaving her blind, unable to walk and totally dependent upon the love and care of others. She required 15 different types of medication, two and three times a day, to synthetically replace what had been destroyed. Bill and Mary Kay took turns, even through the night, repositioning Sarah in her bed so that she never got bed sores. She required an apnea monitor and a heart and lung machine recording her oxygen levels. Because of the damage to her brain her physical growth was impaired. At age five she weighed 25 lbs and was the size of a two year old.
The Browns insurance company refused to include Sarah in the family’s coverge. She was provided with health care coverage by Bill Brown’s company, but at age 4, removed from coverage when her medical expenses became to costly. Mary Kay claims that it was, once again, the pro life community and local, private agencies who provided the most financial and compassionate support.
Sarah had two funeral services, one in the Southern Baptist church of her father, Bill Brown, and the second in the Catholic church of her mother, Mary Kay, presided over by Wichita Bishop, Eugene Gerber. Between the two services eight hundred people attended Sarah’s funeral.
Mary Kay claims that the hardest part of caring for Sarah was the verbal abuse the family endured from strangers. From, as she put it, other pro death people. The Browns moved from Wichita to Valleycenter, a rural farming community, because of a particularly ugly encounter with someone claiming that the Browns had done Sarah an injustice allowing her to live.
According to Mary Kay, Sarah was never viewed as a burden by any member of her family. What with seven other children and help from members of the local and pro life community, there was always someone around to hold, talk to or touch Sarah. During the adoption procedures it was necessary to subpoena the birth mother’s medical records. There was nothing in the record to indicate that any of the medical problems faced by Sarah were genetic or inherited in any way. She would have been a normal, blue eyed, reddish blonde haired little girl.
Mary Kay’s brother summed up everbody’s feelings at the funeral when he declared that George Tiller had succeeded in killing Sarah, it just took him five years to do it.
Sarah was buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Wichita. Her grave site is within ten feet of another grave where twins are buried. These two little girls died as a result of the effects of previous abortions on their mother.
The state of Kansas has nothing to say about the activities of George Tiller. According to a judge, Tiller did nothing wrong. Sarah Ministries, begun by Mary Kay and Bill, during Sarah’s life time, grew out of a conviction that they had to try to prevent this happening to any other child. Mary Kay has opened her home to pregnant women, providing them with love, parenting classes, medical attention, jobs, housing, whatever the woman needs. Sarah Ministry has provided services to about 25 women age 12 years to 35 years. Many of the women helped had been scheduled at Tiller’s clinic.
Mary Kay is a regular sidewalk counselor outside Tiller’s clinic. The day that the Arizona girl arrived at the clinic 175 were there, standing in the rain, praying and witnessing to the value of life. Unfortunately that baby was not spared.
Sarah Ministries is a legally created non profit organization able and eager to receive tax deductible contributions to continue its services to pregnant women.Mary kay states that none of the funds is used for salaries. It is all used for the pregnant women.