Letter to the Editor The Sun Sentinel

October 2, 2012
Letter to the Editor
The Sun Sentinel
500 Broward Boulevard
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33394

RE: “Free Speech for….somebody…maybe” – Some comments on your “Let’s cut the baby in half” editorial about free speech in today’s lead editorial.

Sirs,

If, as you say, “a matter of respect for what others hold dear” trumps the 25 century old Greek maxim “Free men speak with free tongues” how did “Piss Christ” or “Corpus Cristi” get into the public arena? It is owed to the moral ledger to say that both were, and are, subsidized by American taxpayers.

[“Piss Christ” shows a crucifix suspended in a vat containing urine. “Corpus Cristi” says that Christ was crucified because of a lovers’ quarrel, the lovers being Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot. Nothing controversial there, right?]

For that matter how did La Commedia – The Divine Comedy – come to be? How, pray tell, has it lasted 8 centuries

How many centuries would the cartoons showing Mohammed in a less than positive light – N.B. that I did not mention pedophilia or bestiality – have lasted?

If I were to criticize cliteroidectomies or to suggest that homosexuals should not be flogged would that make me into an insensitive Christian curmudgeon?

Why must we bear the burden of compromising with a culture that turned inward 1000 years ago?

This is a religion that was halfway across Europe less than a century after it was formed. This is a religion that promised to stable their horses in the Vatican. This is a religion that will not permit any place of worship other than their own in all the countries that they rule.

Why must we give up a right that is ours from birth, a “gift from beyond the stars”?

The encomium about not yelling “Fire” in a crowded theatre still applies. I promise to stay away from Mecca when I decide to attack sacred cows – N.B. again that I did not mention sacred pigs – that may offend some turbaned thugs.

Billingsgate is not just a destination. It is a precious gift that must be protected. The elections of 1800, 1828, 1864, and 1884 are examples of a free people expanding the envelope of free speech.

We are still standing.

Why have elbows unless they are sharp and in constant use?

We earned the right to use them as we see fit.

They haven’t.




Kevin Smith