Yesterday, I observed vaunted liberal tolerance in action as ANSWER protesters smacked a couple of anti-amnesty Tea Party folks for the high crime of snapping pictures and taking video of the crowd. One presumes the Partiers were taking pictures of the signs carried by the ANSWER folks. So despicable, those Tea Partiers exercising their First Amendment rights to document the activities of rival protesters on public property.
Not exactly, according to several YouTube commenters who think the Huffington Post is an authoritative and unbiased source on the matter. What we can't see, according to the commenters, is how the Partiers were intruding on ANSWER's police-designated protest site.
Really, looked like a couple of guys taking some photos and/or video. Looked like some words were exchanged. Then looked like an ANSWER protester felt he wasn't getting his message across clearly through words and opted for a cruder approach.
A self-identified Southerner tries to excuse the outburst of violence, saying:
Listen up Sport,
As a Southerner let me tell you that if you get in someone's face down here, you had better be ready to back your words up with action.
These guys ran their mouth and got a knuckle sandwich for their troubles. If these crying bed-wetters cann't handle it, then they should have stayed on their side of the street.
As a Southerner let me tell you that if you get in someone's face down here, you had better be ready to back your words up with action.
These guys ran their mouth and got a knuckle sandwich for their troubles. If these crying bed-wetters cann't handle it, then they should have stayed on their side of the street.
Well, I'm from the South too, and I'm a firm believer in the notion of the first guy to throw a punch is the one who loses the argument. Neither zenhammer or I know what was said between the Partier and ANSWER fellows. It's possible he could have mouthed off to the ANSWER folks to provoke them. Then again, it's equally possible that the ANSWER folks told the Partier to get lost, and he politely reminded them that he too has Constitutional rights. The point is we don't know. Even if we did, it's irrelevant! Did an entire generation age without hearing the adage "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me"? Shameful if that's the case.
We'll use zenhammer's logic for a moment: Since, statistically speaking, a majority of gun-owners tend to be center-right, and name-calling and other forms of verbal abuse now justify violence, I predict a quiet street filled with the blood of ANSWER activists who mouthed off to the wrong Tea Partier. Every heated political dispute devolves into a modern-day recreation of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: "Two go in, one comes out."
Thankfully, Kennedy and Khruschev, Nixon and Brezhnev, and Reagan and Gorbachev, to name a few, showed a little more restraint in the biggest conflict of ideologies so far, or that particular street corner in Fort Lauderdale might be a little more quiet today. Deathly quiet, in fact.
Roman senators brawled on the floor of the Roman Senate. I would hope we're a little more civilized.
No comments:
Post a Comment