Cake

A number of weeks ago I was browsing through Facebook and came across a post by an acquaintance of mine whom I respect.  This fellow had just stumbled upon or been shown a Facebook page created to support Muslim extremism.  As a veteran of Afghanistan, he was quite upset about it, as he should be; but then as I scrolled down to the Comments section I read many angry posts in agreement with his initial one.  Many of the Commentators were calling for some kind of “Action” from the Powers That Be. Everything from Facebook administrators banning the creators of the page to the Government tracking them down and charging them as terrorists.  Now, the members of this Muslim Facebook page/group hadn’t committed any crimes that I could see (because as a good aspiring historian I did my research and browsed through their page), they had simply exercised their First Amendment Rights, albeit in an offensive and bigoted way.  I’m not spun up on what all is in the Facebook Terms of Agreement or whatever (though maybe I should be…) so there’s a good chance they may have breached those rules, but no actual crime had been committed. I decided to add my two cents and simply commented “Freedom of Speech, bro.”  This started a frenzy.  My acquaintance responded in a very hasty and angry manner, of which I don’t remember the specifics, which set off a whole train of thought in my head. Mind you I was as angry about the Muslim page/group as he was, but my father also brought me up to think rationally and look at all sides of an issue. So I began to type a retort that I was sure would be long-winded, but I stopped and deleted it.  “Why?” you ask. Because I realized that my acquaintance was as firm in his opinion as I was mine, so I let the matter drop.  As I mentioned, I respect this man, so I didn’t want to sully that by starting a Facebook Comments Argument.  Thankfully typing takes a little longer than speaking and there’s the option of the delete key; my brain-to-mouth reflex is usually much faster. But there was still this big retort that had already fired to the forefront of my brain and I just had to get it out. It was like the kid who’s been told what Daddy’s getting for Father’s Day and to keep it secret but just can’t help himself and blurts it out as soon as Dad’s home from work. So I decided to toss it into my writing journal instead, and felt much better afterward.

So here’s what I wrote down in a frenzy of lead and big words:

With the advent of social media, publicized opinions are more prolific.  Recently, I’ve been noticing a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment, and understandably so.  There’s a lot of anger towards pro-Muslim/pro-ISIS posts and pages [on Facebook], and I’m angry too, but to say that they should be censored or punished for exercising their First Amendment rights is hypocritical.  Freedom of speech, like many of our rights, is a two-edged sword, so you can’t deny someone the right that you enjoy no matter how vehemently you disagree.  I get it, you may be very personally affected by the actions of certain groups, and you’d be well within your rights to verbally (or typographically) express your ire and disapproval; but to suggest that ACTION should be taken, especially government action, is to attack the rights that have been bought and paid for in blood time and again.

The part that really irked me in all those comments was the one about censoring the offenders. Censorship is a big deal to me.  As an avid reader and a fledgling writer, that word is almost as offensive to me as insulting my mother.  I believe that no one should be censored, that all should be allowed to speak their piece, and if there is disagreement then a calm and rational discussion or debate should follow.

To sum up with a cliche’:

You can’t have your cake and eat it too.