Uncivil Liberties

By William L. Garvin

Apparently many on the fringe left never had mommas that told them "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."  Then again, many of those same persons seem to have little interest other than forcing their agendas down the throats of everyone else.  Unfortunately, their indiscriminate use of freedom without a concomitant exercise of responsibility does nothing to further rational discussion and only serves to further polarize the nation.

For instance, the left is screaming about the police waging a war against black men.  Then, true to "confirmation bias," they select the few examples of white officers shooting black men all the while ignoring black officers shooting either black or white suspects or police officers ambushed and murdered by blacks.  They complain about the "lack of trust" between the police and minority communities but only focus on law enforcement responsibilities.  There is nothing advocated in regard to changes the minority community itself should be making.  Then you have the "Black Brunch" bunch that thinks it's perfectly acceptable to march into eating establishments and target white people and make them "uncomfortable" with their antics.  They chant the names of their "victims" like Trayvon Martin and Eric Brown perpetuating the "hands up, don't shoot" mythology and shout "for shame."  Since their "minds" are made up, don't confuse them with facts about their cause célèbre.

Another example is occurring on university campuses which kowtow to leftist demands that the movie AMERICAN SNIPER not be shown.  That is, until the backlash occurs.  On one Michigan campus, "protestors" jumped on stage and refused to leave while the movie was being shown.  It's not enough to simply avoid the screening; no, they had to try to prevent others from seeing it as well.  The left continues to pursue its tyranny of the minority.  These delicate souls could just as easily have retreated to their "safe space," a recent college innovation that allows them to be protected from any thoughts or ideas that might conflict with their liberal dogma or actually require logical discussion.

William F. Buckley once noted that "Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."  Ironically, leftists seem oblivious to the heinous offenses they perpetrate on others while raising "being offended" to an art form.  Take the Memories Pizza Parlor case in Indiana.  An obscure reporter sought out this Christian business (they never seek out Muslim businesses!) and posed the hypothetical improbable "would you cater a gay wedding?"  The odds of this ever occurring are astronomical so the question itself is absurd.  Nonetheless, the owner said she had no problem serving gays in her establishment but she could not participate in a gay wedding ceremony because of her Christian faith.

As soon as her answer was published the wrath of the LGBT community came thundering down.  Hundreds of negative reviews immediately showed up on YELP; the phone lines were constantly ringing and phony orders couldn't be distinguished from legitimate orders; and then came the threats of arson and death.  The pizza parlor had to shut down.

If someone didn't want to cater your wedding, why would you force them to?  If someone didn't want to photograph your wedding, or provide flowers, or make your wedding cake, why would you force them to?  A reasonable person would simply find an alternate source of service for their affair.  A reasonable person would remember the signs that said "no shirt, no shoes, no service," and "management reserves the right to refuse service to anyone."  A reasonable person would understand there is a delicate balance between freedom of religion and non-discrimination that must be sorted out.  An informed person would know that the Indiana law did not give anyone the right to discriminate--it only allowed religious conviction to be raised as a defense should there be a conflict.  Unfortunately, the leftist agenda is not satisfied with just accepting gay marriage, you must support gay marriage.  In fact, the leader of Wyoming Equality posted that "churches that lobby to have freedoms and rights taken away from ANYONE should absolutely have their 501(c) 3 status revoked!"  In other words, if you believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, your church should be punished!

A GoFundMe page was set up for Memories and in a little over a week, nearly 30,000 people (including non-heterosexuals) contributed $842,000.  Memories will make some improvements, has reopened, and will share their new fortune with "disabled children, a woman's help group, firefighters, police trusts, Christian churches, and Washington florist, Barronelle Stutzman, 70, who was fined ($1,000) after declaring she would not serve a gay wedding."  Just as with Chick-fil-A, Memories reopened to a full house.  Most Americans do not like obnoxious bullies of any persuasion.