You're asking for it!

      I can still remember the news story as if it was yesterday.   A congressman had brought to the
attention of Congress that money had been paid under the Endowment for the Arts to an artist who took a picture of a crucifix dipped in a glass of urine.  The piece was called: Piss Christ.   After seeing it, I was the one who was "pissed".   How could someone do something like that and call it "art".    Congress's phone lines went on overload from other angry citizens like myself.   But our anger was not so much that an artist would do such a thing, but that our tax dollars went to pay for this work of art which meant I paid an artist to slap me in the face and call it art.   Did the Pope send out an order to kill the artist?  Did Billy Graham post "Wanted" posters with the artists face and address on it?   Did the artist have to go under FBI protective services?  

     No.  No and No.

     Recently some cartoonists in Texas decided to hold a contest to draw a picture of Mohammad and 2 jihadist from Arizona drove to kill them all and were only stopped by a police officer with excellent aim and precision.   Some, like Bill O'Reilly, in the media have said that the contest members had it coming.   They say that their contest was unnecessary and was "asking for it". 

     Is that what it has come down to?   Is FEAR now the gauge we must use when deciding what to say and what not to say?    Won't this give any other group who doesn't want their views mocked or ridiculed the rationale to commit violence to end all discussion?   Where will it end?  We know many Muslims are against alcohol and scantily dressed women too.  What if Muslims become enraged about how we dress or what we drink?   Would we say a girl in a bikini was "asking" for it if she is killed on a beach?   What if a person like me writes that Muhammad was NOT a prophet and his writings are pure fiction?   Should I be killed for mocking them?   Am I asking for it too?  What if I show up at a Yankees game wearing a Boston Red Sox jersey and I get knifed by an irate fan?  Would it be considered "justified murder"?   I guess using Bill O'Reilly's logic all the cases mentioned herein would be people "asking for it".

     In my opinion fear should have no basis in Free Speech decisions.  Our nation is built on not just the ideal of free speech but also the ideal that citizens who hear speech they disagree with are able to control their emotions and allow others who do not share the same view to voice their opinion without harm to their person.  Those who wish to live here in this country must be willing behave in such a way or be asked to leave.   

     As I wrote in a previous blog, the last line of our national anthem says: "O'er the land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE".   The BRAVE in our country are not just those who wear military uniforms and go to far off countries to fight for us, but also those here at home who choose to use our freedom to voice our views in the sight of those who would use FEAR to take our FREEDOMS from us.