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Joel Bowman's avatar

Thanks, gents. Had a long drive this morning and, as they say in these here parts, "The sun has risen, the sun has set... and you ain't out of Texas yet!" Enjoy your weekends!

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Tom Nimberger's avatar

Joel,

Thoroughly enjoyed, as always I might add, your current missive re: “Fire! Fire! Fire!”. The concepts of freedom and, inexorably, free speech most certainly are integral to these United States of America. Initially your article took me back to my grammar school days in the 1950s (Yes, even some of we septuagenarians can still read and write.) when our boy-hood arguments always seemed to include defense of one’s position with a “Hey, it’s a free country. I can do what I want. I can say whatever I want, man”. Many times, we also threw in the almost mandatory; “Sticks and stones can break my bones but …………..”. Mercifully, though, unabashed naivete hopefully sooner than later morphed into increasing levels of maturity relative to this topic of free speech.

In my opinion the most important element of free speech, both historically as well as inherently, is the famous John Adams quote; “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” To be sure a decrease in currency value due to inflation is an overridingly major problem, but it pales in comparison to a decaying moral culture.

The logical conclusion remains: We are not free to say whatever we want or to do whatever we want. We only are free to say and do what is right. Anything less, or contrary, is not freedom but abject slavery. This is more that an esoteric nuance. Rather, it is the very heart of a moral culture. In a recent discussion a friend argued that he was “free” to defecate on and burn the American flag. I explained to him that while in this great country of ours he had the “license” to do so, he by no means was “free” to do so. Didn’t appear to me that he was able to digest the core truth of my retort.

I also very much appreciate your writing style, particularly the beautifully crafted, and at times complex, pictures your language produces. While you do tend to use a lot of brush strokes, the end result is worth the effort ….. both for you and this reader.

Pardon my matriculation from commenting on how much I enjoyed your article to presenting one of my own. Keep ‘em coming. Thanks. Tom

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