What
exactly are we fighting for? There's
this old guy (even older than me) by the name of Sterling who apparently has
earned a lot of money over the years.
He's got a thing going with a MUCH younger lady of African extraction as
I understand it. Anyway, if I understand
this right, he told her he didn't want her posing for photos with some black
athletes that he had a problem with (I believe it was a former basketball
player) and also that he didn't want her bringing some black people to ballgames. As I understand it he told her these things
in what he believed to be privacy.
Anyway, somehow the press got hold of these statements and branded Mr.
Sterling as a rascist. Now I don't think
anyone knows exactly what this means (and I know I don't) but apparently it has
become a crime in this country.
Now we need
to look closely at this. We have reached
a point where a person can be fined millions of dollars for what he apparently
believes. I don't care what the belief
is, I was under the impression that a man could hold any opinion or belief he
wanted in this country of ours. I'm
pretty sure I killed a few people to protect this right. Now the first amendment has been deemed to
protect all kinds of nonsense like flag burnings and picketing the funerals of
fallen soldiers but it's illegal to hold "racist" view? Don't create a phoney misunderstanding here,
I'm not defending Mr. Sterling's views.
In fact, his views - whatever they may be - don't require defending any more
than anyone else's. My point is simply
that when it's no longer safe to express our views we have already lost the
basis this country was formed on.
