Stirling's letter about TT

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TT in Exile : One Thread

KR Brennan

Thanks for writing

Salon just took away the account without explanation. Though I think you can guess why, I did goad them a bit. But not much - it does not take much. I bleieve firmly that it is the duty of people living in a repressive society to force that society to show that it is repressive, to force it to act to destroy those who speak the truth. Salon coddles the Freep, and I merely had the courage to say so.

For many years segregationists in the south demanded the "right" to be racists as the price for participating in the country as a whole. It took a generation for fair minded people to state clearly that this was unacceptable, some paid with their lives. Business went along with the segregationists at first, since it did not want to upset them and "loose the business".

I feel that the Freep are the same way now. Media outlets pander to them, even nominally left leaning ones. For me, it became time to say that if you aren't for democracy, you are against democracy, whatever noises one may make about sniping at Bush, it means nothing if one coddles the brown shirts that the Regime uses to maintain a lockhold on what is said about politics.

That Salon decided to ban me for drawing the connection between their complicity with the Freep and immoral behavior - is their perogative. But it does show the state of affairs. It is only going to get worse, my onw personal decision is that it is time to take action, and nothing other than action will be effective. I hope others will come to the same conclusion, that it is one cannot allow immoral and unethical behavior in the polity without being complicit with it. The other side has declared that abortion, homosexuality and democracy are immoral. We have declared that hatred, intolerance, racism and oligarchy is immoral. It is time to put aside doubts, act with our consciences, and let history decide who was right.

Revolution or Capitulation, the choice is ours. And may we have a Revolution as velvet as the one that brought Havel to power and freedom to Prague.

-- Stirling Newberry

-- Kevin Brennan (Kevin_Brennan_2@hotmail.com), March 21, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ