Freedoms

I am almost, not quite, but almost an absolutist when it comes to freedom of expression/speech.  To be sure, protections should guard us from government restrictions and mostly should include political speech.  There are, in our personal lives, much more opportunities for limitations, including slander and libel, pornography, etc.  But that we can say or write something doesn't mean we should say or write it.

The shootings of the Republican party ballplayers can serve as a backdrop.  It appears they were targeted solely because they are Republicans.  The blame for the shooting remains with the shooter, nobody else.  I know some folks are going to jump all over the liberals/Democrats, esp the Trump haters, saying the vitriol of their writing and speech encouraged and led to the shootings.  Not me.

More than once, other shootings have been blamed by the Left on the Tea Parties, Sarah Palin, and others.  Their rhetoric spawned the hatred that inspired (?) the shootings.  Nope......

Just because one side is wrong and uses these episodes for political capital doesn't make it right.  The temptation is to give it right back to them, but that temptation is wrong.  Again, the one responsible for the wounded Republicans lies with the shooter.

That said, the rights of free expression and free speech come with responsibilities.  Where are the condemnations of what we see going on right now?  OK, there was some blowback against that comedienne (I don't know her name, having never heard of her.) who held up an effigy of Don Trump's head--the result of beheading.  But unless I'm mistaken, Palin and the Tea Partiers were targeted much more for violence that occurred by other deranged individuals. 

And what's with that Shakespeare in the Park in Central Park, NYC?  I heard the reproduction of Julius Caesar has a Trump look-alike being stabbed by the Roman Senators.  It bothers me that someone actually considers that art, but freedoms......  What is most disturbing is that the audience actually cheered, at least according to reports.  Even if that isn't so, that they didn't cheer (I don't know for certain.), why didn't the crowd hoot and boo or, better yet, walk out?  Where is our sense of decency??????

So, the vitriol spewed by one side leads to shootings, but the vitriol by the other side gets a free pass?  Do I have that right?  Rights come with responsibilities.  If those exercising their rights don't act responsibly, maybe other citizens should act for them--boycotting, walking out, booing, etc.  Is Shakespeare in the Park funded by corporate donations?  Again, I don't know.  But if it is, where are the withdrawals of donations by those corporations?  Oh, they pulled out fast enough in North Carolina and other places when laws were passed that made it legal for, say, adult men to use the same bathrooms as little girls.  I guess it's OK to act irresponsibly and to overlook or even condone others' irresponsible actions in some instances, but not others, if those instances are politically correct ones.  (Boy, I don't like using that term.)