Opinion By Lauren Comele Morris
May 11, 2020
WE MUST NOT EVER SILENCE DISSENT IN THIS COUNTRY
Recently, the San Antonio City Council violated the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution by passing unanimously an illegal and unconstitutional hate speech resolution regarding the usage of "Chinese Flu" and similar terms. In true Gestapo fashion, they wrote encouraging the general public to report incidents of hate speech to the authorities. The City Council need to remember Matal v. Tam which was UNANIMOUSLY affirmed by SCOTUS. That means, the 1A is narrowly defined regarding hate speech and is not to be violated. This case is over a band called The Slants and was a trademark denial case. The mark was filed by Bassist Simon Tam for the accomplished group. The trademark denial was an attempt to make registration of trademarks that may "disparage" persons, institutions, beliefs or national symbols - illegal. In other words, being offensive is illegal. The case went to the Supreme Court and the decision was Unanimous. Simon won.
The Slants is an Asian-American dance rock band. Simon named his band The Slants to reclaim and take ownership of Asian stereotypes. His trademark application was denied and eventually abandoned as the reviewer found the mark disparaging and took it upon himself/herself to deny the trademark. Tam appealed before the Federal Court and the Lanham Act's disparaging provision came under the microscope of scrutiny as to whether or not it is unconstitutional. In this landmark case it was and Tam was to be granted protection. The Slants' website itself states that they wanted to take the misconception and physical trait for which their culture is bullied and turn it into a point of pride instead. The San Antonio City Council should take this as an example of what to do. Promote the Asian culture, defend it fine, but do not silence freedom of speech based on some hurt feelings. Citizens have a Constitution and the rule of law allowing them to protect themselves against crime. It is not in the best interest of a free society, a society endowed with liberty, for a local government to institutionalize a Marxist resolution into law by criminalizing free thought and speech.
The broader sense of this case is important because it reaffirmed the First Amendment regarding offensive speech, criticism and hate speech. Hate speech is clearly and narrowly defined as speech that calls for an act of violence. Hurty words . . . we get to have them.
The First Amendment is the cornerstone of our humanity, our liberty and our way of life. The SCOTUS ruled and reaffirmed that the government cannot ban expression merely because it is offensive.
The San Antonio City Council cannot send out the troops to arrest people for hate speech. The American People must not allow themselves to be turned into informants for a Communist agenda. This is WRONG. Justice Alito wrote: "Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability or similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express 'the thought we hate'."
We cannot silence dissent in this country but we are seeing it happening every day during the COVID crisis where cops are arresting citizens for violating mask and social distancing policies made by local governments. See a collective on these reports by investigative reporter Justin Trouble.
The Chinese People live under the boot of the CCP. They live under slavery and oppression. They have experienced the worst of Communism and they understand totalitarianism better than we do. They want every freedom they can have, I would assume. Does not totalitarianism start with rogue governments silencing the people and turning its citizens upon one another by snitching? The result being fear, families are destroyed, their kids removed, and the offender is thrown in jail for his thoughts and his words.
This is a reality in Sweden. It is called "The New Public Policy" and it regards the criticism of Islam-The Islamic Law of Slander for which the punishment is death, usually beheading. In Sweden, if you are caught making criticisms in the slightest form about Islam, the government will punish you. Think about that.
The San Antonio City Council cannot enslave entire communities over hurty words. Doing that is COMMUNISM and implementing the Islamic Law of Slander. The COSA Council need to consider who will swoop down on them wanting their group to be added to the list of the easily offended. One group without a doubt will be Hamas d/b/a CAIR (The Council on American Islamic Relations). Once that happens, the enforcement ensues just like we have seen in London and it goes way beyond punishment for tweets and Facebook posts.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama supported the UN/OIC's Resolution 16/18 Islamic Law of Slander, blasphemy and censorship pursuant to the UN subgroup The Organization of Islamic Cooperation. We narrowly missed it on a federal level. The utter destruction of our First Amendment by the Obama Administration. Think about what we are seeing coming out of the Democrat party at the local level. Who do the COSA Council and others like them think they are?
We cannot and must not ever silence dissent! Here is a word of warning to the Communists out there. Keep it up and this is what is waiting for you:
A GOOD DOSE OF LIBERTY AND PEOPLE WILLING TO DIE FOR THIS COUNTRY
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