( I haven't written for a while....the holidays, family concerns, many reasons. Nevertheless, I have been still actively involved in supporting the conservative Constitutional movement. We attended the SC Tea Party Convention a couple of weeks ago. Still working with our local Tea Party efforts, and writing an op-ed for our local paper. So...still here and still at it.)
"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me?" I think that has been debunked. Words do hurt people and there are such things as slander and libel. Words mean things.
Recently I was called an "imbecile" in a public forum for an editorial I wrote explaining that the truthful descriptions of what our government is doing should be brought back into our language.
It's difficult to have a conversation with someone(s) who won't discuss facts. What prompted this name-calling outburst was an editorial attempting to get a conversation started about political ideology. I decided it is past time to fix the language problem I have encountered where people refuse to acknowledge our government policies that are communism, socialism, and fascism. Silly me. (The person who called me an "imbecile" insisted that Japan was a communist nation during WWII. So...you have to take these verbal attacks and wonder what on earth has happened to historical knowledge? I guess Hirohito might be wondering what happened to his Imperial Monarchy...not declared as a communist nation. But, oh well.)
The local newspaper has a comments section that is attached to facebook. So any comments are publicly published for anyone who accesses facebook. That's fine. I have no problem with that. But what has happened is that comments section has been dominated by local Democrat Party operatives and so-called liberals. The comments from those folks are always hateful, vitriolic, and never result in real conversation. Their comments are full of personal attacks, either toward me or the sources of facts that I might cite in my writing. This has happened every time my writing is published....not to say there are not a few supporters chiming into the fray, but the majority of writing in that comments section, now on facebook, has been taken over by the leftists / so-called progressives. In truth these people are communists and / or socialists. And they hate it when recognized for what they are.
I've come to accept that is what will happen. No amount of facts matter to those folks. They cannot bear to have the truth published in the public realm for other people to read and realize. Still I try. But the reason it struck me to write about this today is that, while I still try, others who are educated, like to learn facts, and who still want to promote America's founding principles, are discouraged to speak out. Who likes to be attacked? No one. Who wants personal attacks thrown at them all over public media such as facebook? No one.
The conversation has to change. The fear has to take a backseat. While we are chastising our representatives in DC and in state and local governments for being wimps and wussies for not standing up, many people out here are also not standing up or making their voices heard in the public sphere. I can see why. It's a normal, human, reaction to stay out of the line of fire. But, we expect our representatives to do what the people are afraid to do. Voilá! Stymied. This actually makes representatives think there is no or little support for Tea Party values, so it's a self-defeating, circular conundrum.
I have hoped that by writing in the public sphere and standing up for conservative Constitutional principles, my example would give more people the courage to speak up. Instead of caving to the sort of people who literally slander and libel Tea Party people in the public forum, the Tea Party movement must get louder and more visible. I see Tea Party people talking to each other, ranting and raving, and generally singing to the choir. That's o.k. I also see some Tea Party people doing the hard work of contacting elected officials, organizing informational meetings, working in primaries, and getting the word out there. BUT right now, the general public, because of the media, is completely blind and deaf to the efforts of the Tea Party, or worse ridiculing the Tea Party as a viable alternative to the unconstitutional, illegal acts of government. As we know, the GOP has an element of people in it who are doing their best to shut out the Tea Party as well. And of course the leftwing media loves to capitalize on that.
