Letter to the Editor The Sun-Sentinel

October 14, 2009

Letter to the Editor
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301

RE: Hoist on whose petard? A comment on your editorial on political speech in today’s edition.

Sirs,
I am bound and determined not be cliché ridden but whatever happened to “slippery slope” and its more evil twin “chilling effect”?

They have become the paradigmatic template, the fixed North Star that guides modern American Liberal newspapers, ones like the Sun-Sentinel when the discussion is about art or theatre.

You, the generic you, say that “Piss Christ”, a piece of work that features a cross suspended in a see-through vat of urine, and one that received tax payer funded subsidies from the National Endowment for the Arts, must be tolerated lest we become a nation of troglodytes untouched by more aesthetical things.

“Corpus Christi”, a play subsidized by the American taxpayer, says that the real reason for the crucifixion of Christ was a lovers’ quarrel. Jesus and Judas, his lover, had a spat. Judas had a hissy fit and dropped a dime on Him. The result was Good Friday.

In both instances the First Amendment, the one that starts with the majestic words “Congress shall make no law…” is the hammer you, the generic you use to keep us, the great unwashed, in line.

Your editorial shines the light of high dudgeon and righteous indignation on defendant Alan Mendelsohn. His indictment so far includes 32 corruption charges. The question of his guilt or innocence will be decided in a different forum. His punishment has already begun. He is a one man stimulus program for the Broward County Bar. As that noted New Jersey community organizer and urban activist, Tony Soprano, says, “He has lawyer bills that would make you gargle with Drano”.

You focus not on his alleged perfidy but rather on his use of “527” groups. They are used to circumvent the limits on individual campaign donations. You have particular scorn for “deep pocketed special interest groups” Right Wing millionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and Left Wing billionaire George Soros use them to advance causes that they believe in. It is important to note that they are spending their own money.

I was absolutely thunderstruck when “deep pocketed special interest groups” got the Protect Pregnant Pigs Amendment into the Florida Constitution. I am sure the porcine world still rejoices. The question of whether or not we offended our Islamic brethren will be decided by to the soon to be appointed Political Speech czar.

My copy of the Constitution has a First Amendment that specifically spells out the right of the people to “peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances”.

The Founders did not give us these rights during the hot summer in Philadelphia in 1787. They merely enumerated them. We were born with those rights, “a gift from beyond the stars”.

Who among us is wise enough to “control interest groups”?

The model for vicious, mudslinging campaigns, one filled with anonymous charges, was the Presidential campaign of 1800. In the end the people got it right.

Quis custodiet ipso custodes, a question asked by Juvenal 20 centuries ago, is still timely, is still valid.

Who will guard the custodians?

Tread lightly.






Kevin Smith