May 20, 2013
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Rights v Respect

Posted on July 23, 2012 by in Uncategorized

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the REPUBLIC for which it stands; one nation, under GOD, indivisible, with LIBERTY and justice for all.”

Last month, I posted a cartoon to my Facebook page. It depicts a classroom full of students standing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. One kid, refusing to stand, props his feet up on his desk. The teacher acknowledged that right, but introduced a wheelchair-bound Marine. The teacher informs the brat that he has the right not to stand because of the Marine’s bravery and sacrifice.

For some reason, this cartoon created somewhat of a stir for one commenter. He complained, like Michelle Obama, that it’s “just a flag”. well, I beg to differ. To me, the flag is symbolic of everything exceptional about America, and I take the pledge very seriously.

I love my country, and everything she stands for. People forget sometimes, or take for granted, all of the rights that we enjoy here. But isn’t it even more important to show respect for the reasons we have those rights? Our founders, our military, and us.

Yes, us. We as Americans, especially those of us with a solid grasp of the Constitution, have a duty to defend those rights. And as Calvin Coolidge reminds us, “duty is not collective; it is personal.” Each of us, individually, has a responsibility to every single patriot who has come before us, and to every one that will follow us, to show respect to the reasons that we have all of our freedoms.

Last month, The Supreme Court determined that Congress has the right to tax citizens for not buying something. Naturally, I disagree. In handing down this ruling, The Court demonstrated a blatant lack of respect for the citizens of America, the Founders, and the Constitution. Chief Justice Roberts attempted to walk a very fine line between rights and respect, and he failed.

Much has been said about this ruling already, so I’m not going to rehash it. If you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past month, the Court ruled that ObamaCare is Constitutional because the penalty for not buying insurance is tax, not a penalty. Pundits from both sides of the aisle have attempted to spin the ruling to suit their agendas, to the point that liberals and conservative alike are both praising Roberts and condemning him.

Similarly, a bunch of conservatives on Twitter have forgotten about rights and respect, and how they intertwine. In the aftermath of the massacre in Aurora, Colorado, some people were insinuating that the federal government, notably the FBI, may have had some sort of connection to the planning or implementing of the shooting. Theories have ranged from a mole supplied the shooter with the artillery to claiming outright that the FBI was involved every step of the way.

Now, regardless of your opinions on the theories that these people have come up with, we can at least all agree that they have a right to voice them. One of the people presenting the theory that the government may have have been involved was Greg Howard (@GregWHoward). Greg is a Marine veteran, ardent conservative, and one of the true warriors in the fight for freedom. After seeing some of what he had to say, some big-name ‘conservatives’ took it upon themselves to focus their attacks not on the left, but on Mr. Howard. Divide and conquer, much? Fellow ‘conservatives’ from Michelle Malkin to alleged leftist convert Lee Stranahan http://leestranahan.com/plant
began attacking Mr. Howard on Twitter and on their blogs. They called him crazy and paranoid, and Lee even accused him of threatening to make his own bomb. If you read Mr. Howard’s timeline, he clearly states that he is speculating; just throwing some ideas out for thoughtful discussion. But, for some, thoughtful discussion is not allowed if the conversation sways from the narrative.

Once some of these big-name Twitter heroes started pointing at Mr. Howard, their followers jumped right on the bandwagon. I mean, when you’ve got the premier twitter popularity website http://twitchy.com/2012/07/21/cuckoo-of-the-day-fbi-staged-aurora-shooting-to-pave-way-for-gun-grab/ posting about you, it’s only a matter of time before the echo chamber kids come after you, trying to get their tweets noticed by their heroes. Because some people obviously hold personalities in higher regard than principles.

What both of these example have in common is a very blurry line between rights and respect. The Supreme Court disrespected us and the Constitution in an attempt to create a ‘right’ to health insurance. The echo chambers on Twitter ignored the right of Free Speech, and in the process, disrespected a fellow conservative. http://thetrenches.us/2012/07/principles-not-personalities/

I long for the day, hopefully soon after the election, that common sense makes a comeback and we recognize and respect each others rights. But I’m not holding my breath. Because it’s not just a matter of calling out the crazies. Crazy or not, we still need to respect the rights of others. Because when you loose the ability to do that, you become an irrelevant fascist pig. Don’t be an irrelevant fascist pig.

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  • http://twitter.com/CryingWolfeBlog CryingWolfeBlog

    Great post jeff.

  • http://twitter.com/jrussell789 Jim Russell

    Immature children can be forgiven their immaturity, but they should by no means be treated as adults in public Schools with rules. The teacher should have said “Stand up or leave class”.

  • Recon5

    I haven’t got the faintest idea who you are, but thank you. What’s happening between the “personalities” on twitter seems symptomatic of a larger divisiveness between conservatives. Interaction between conservatives changed dramatically after ’10, in my observation. I’ve never understood why.
    I’ve been offline for weeks and still haven’t managed to avoid hearing about the public brawls you mention here. Meh.

  • P.Giamatti

    Thank you for articulating this so well. I better understand it now.

    I did not see Greg say that and I would not agree that speculation would be correct (about the FBI). Greg contends it was out of context. But I still think Greg is a passionate conservative, a vet and does try to continue his part to preserve our freedoms. I agree with many other feelings he shares each week and enjoy his company.

    Having said that, I too, also notice this full out assault by those within the Breitbart establishment against strict conservatives since Andrew’s passing. It’s even been mentioned by some that a few within that circle are attempting to reclassify the conservative label and water it down by railroading Twitter veterans that have weathered liberal storms in there by painting them in the worst light possible. In this action, if they do stand up to Lee Stranahan in the redefinition phase, he’s already muddied their reputations with his opinions (note, nothing by way of tangible facts). To his mind, he’s hedging that their credibility is gone by the time they oppose him and their protestations fall upon deaf ears who have hopefully scorned them.

    Now whether or not this conspiracy tale is true, is anyone’s guess. Yet it is clear the reputation assaults are happening on Stranahan’s blog and on Twitter. This may be the only rationalization they believe are the reasons behind the madness.

    Lee Stranahan has made himself the worst example for whatever the rumblings are out in Twitterland. So far he has accused certain key conservatives of -trying to confiscate the Breitbart Empire-, -steal the Breitbart Legacy-, and this recent, -take down Breitbart.com-. All of which is nonsense of course. I have seen no conservative on Twitter suggesting such a ridiculous and fruitless feat.

    What I do see are some conservatives whom are highly suspicious of Lee Stranahan due to his own attacks against the right wing. They question his motives given his recent alleged conversion toward the right and especially because he appears to be setting himself up as the newly, self-annointed Breitbart Blowhorn (read: prodigal son). He’s a Johnny-Come-Lately to Twittergate, was a rabid leftist during it (as his videos illustrate) and has far too much strategy going on with each and every blog post he seeks to indoctrinate his crowd into believing. This alone is enough to doubt that he’s acting on his own without the help of someone with a grudge to bear.

    The question is which one has the grudge? Dana Loesch, Mandy Nagy, Michelle Malkin and others tacitly align themselves with Stranahan with frequent RT’s of his warped version of conservatism while turning a blind eye to those whom he attacks who are 100% conservative and always have been in there. To date, I have yet to see him voice his attacks against the Obama Administration where it would far more constructive.

    There’s another story in here. Something is going on where I’m starting to believe there’s a deeper reason why certain key conservatives are being ripped to shreds. A calculated reason why their stories were given to posers to tell instead of just inviting those who knew it best. Even more suspicious is watching Lee Stranahan ready and set to be the maligner against people who deserve our support for persevering against the left the way they have.

    As for a tantalizing end, I will give you something else to contemplate.

    Last night an interesting thing happened. While everyone in the Breitbart circle has been focused on SWATtings, to hear them tell it, when they’re not focused on Twitchy articles that slap conservative tweets together to admonish them, a techie type appeared out of nowhere to confront the attacks Lee Stranahan was making against a conservative group he’s been antagonizing and writing maliciously about. I didn’t think much of it at the time except wonder who it could be as it seemed associated with a known conservative who has taken much heat by Lee Stranahan. The next morning I saw one of the persons who was SWATted, Mike Stack, thank the person for finding out how the SWATs were done!

    “Thank you for finding out HOW they did the swatting! Awesome job!!”, tweeted Mike from his @twitter-445032220:disqus account.

    Someone asked for more. The response was, ” I was told a few hours ago. No link . Just that they got it.”

    Just got what? We know that Mike Stack has long pursued any leads that point to who may have SWATted him after being falsely accused of hacking Anthony Weiner’s account by Neal Rauhauser, a progressive thug that Greg has also suffered at the hands of. It’s been a long year where we look back and know that Mike was the first to suffer this criminal act.

    So why would Lee Stranahan gang up on this mysterious account to the point where they gang-blocked it and it was suspended today? Aren’t these the same tactics they complained of having done to them? Something is very wrong with that picture. Lee Stranahan, the very person who alleges he’s after the SWATters in the pursuit of justice, slaps down a Twitter account to shut out criticism of him, while blogging with tags containing Aurora Shootings to draw attention to his site where he consistently begs for donations. This is shameless as it waters down the importance of the horrible Aurora, Colorado attacks and speaks more of a man looking for people to open their wallets.

    Take note. That suspended account did something for conservatives last night. We don’t know what that is and we probably won’t now due to Lee Stranahan’s actions. Something no one else has done, not even the congressional support to stop the SWATting abuse. And Lee Stranahan and friends quickly silenced it because it had the nerve to confront Lee Stranahan prior to gifting Mike Stack with some type of evidence.

    I would like to see a competent journalist get to the bottom of this. It may be nothing, but it may be something. Something that leads to the justice everyone has been preaching about wanting so badly.

    P. Giamatti