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However I do draw much inspiration from an old story I read about from the 1970s in Skokie Illinois, a suburb of Chicago known for having a large number of Jewish refugees from Germany. A Nazi party was banned from doing a Swastika waving march through the area and the injuction was being contested in the courts, of all things, by the American Civil Liberties Union headed by Aryeh Neier, himself a refugee from Nazism.
Sounded weird but when asked WHY Aryeh said that The American First Amendment enshrined the right of all to Free Expression and to remove that protection, perhaps especially from the extremely unpopular, would be to dilute that protection in general if not render it meaningless.
It must be difficult for someone who is a refugee from such horrors to swallow their hatred for such people enough to wish to protect Jefferson Ideals and the freedom of expression, even for hateful monsters.
I was in Evanston, Il at the time of that march. I remember it well.
There is a book and a movie about the conflict and the feelings it stirred up.
Skokie had all the elements of a difficult case: a clash of absolutes, prior restraint of speech, and heated public sentiment. In recreating it, Strum presents a detailed account and analysis of the legal proceedings as well as finely delineated portraits of the protagonists: Frank Collin, National Socialist Party of America leader and the son of a Jewish Holocaust survivor; Skokie community leader Sol Goldstein, a Holocaust survivor who planned a counterdemonstration against the Nazis; Skokie mayor Albert Smith, who wanted only to protect his townspeople; and ACLU attorney David Goldberger, caught in the ironic position of being a Jew defending the rights of Nazis against fellow Jews. While the ACLU did win the case, it was a costly victory--30,000 of its members left the organization. And in the end, ironically, the Nazis never did march in Skokie.
The movie is worth watching although it gets some criticism for its portrayal of the wife of the main character. Imo, Danny Kaye did a great job portraying the outrage of the community.
I dont respect all beliefs, religions, ideologies, philosophies as truth ... I only respect the Persons freewill to chose them if that is the case.....AND ONLY if they do not bring harm to oneself , others, or a society at large.
I dont respect all beliefs, religions, ideologies, philosophies as truth ... I only respect the Persons freewill to chose them if that is the case.....AND ONLY if they do not bring harm to oneself , others, or a society at large.
Yet you are Christian aren't you ????
REPLY: Yes, im a Christian. I fail to see what you are getting at .
I was in Evanston, Il at the time of that march. I remember it well. There is a book and a movie about the conflict and the feelings it stirred up.
Yeah it is an interesting story. My respect lies with the guy who, himself a refugee from Nazism, was so committed to Jefferson ideals that he would actually fight for the right of expression for those he must abhor the most. Would that many of us would stick to our ideals in the face of such bias.
I dont respect all beliefs, religions, ideologies, philosophies as truth ... I only respect the Persons freewill to chose them if that is the case.....AND ONLY if they do not bring harm to oneself , others, or a society at large.
Yet you are Christian aren't you ????
REPLY: Yes, im a Christian. I fail to see what you are getting at .
Do you not?? Well what I'm getting at is that you are saying that you would respect beliefs if "AND ONLY if they do not bring harm to oneself , others, or a society at large."
Well I would say that if there was one single ideology in the history of mankind that has brought the most harm to "oneself , others, or a society at large"...it would be Christianity. Yet you respect it!
I am a realist, a Secular Humanist and an Atheist. With that said I find it difficult to respect religions which have killed hundreds of millions trying to convert the world to their view, and whose holy books justify slavery, genocide, rape, and a 2000 year fraud. Not much to respect in the organized religions of today.
What I do respect is a good secular system which is fair to all individuals in that system.
The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.
-- H L Mencken.
The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame.
True enough, even a superstitious man has certain inalienable rights. He has a right to harbor and indulge his imbecilities as long as he pleases, provided only he does not try to inflict them upon other men by force. He has a right to argue for them as eloquently as he can, in season and out of season. He has a right to teach them to his children. But certainly he has no right to be protected against the free criticism of those who do not hold them. He has no right to demand that they be treated as sacred. He has no right to preach them without challenge. Did Darrow, in the course of his dreadful bombardment of Bryan, drop a few shells, incidentally, into measurably cleaner camps? Then let the garrisons of those camps look to their defenses. They are free to shoot back. But they can't disarm their enemy.
-- H L Mencken
I am a realist, a Secular Humanist and an Atheist. With that said I find it difficult to respect religions which have killed hundreds of millions trying to convert the world to their view, and whose holy books justify slavery, genocide, rape, and a 2000 year fraud. Not much to respect in the organized religions of today.
What I do respect is a good secular system which is fair to all individuals in that system.
I wish i had a dollar for every time i heard these pop misconceptions . This will straighten out your errors : Answers for Atheists and Agnostics
Many horrendous things have been done in the NAME (only) of God even though they were not OF him....but in the last century alone, atheist Leaders Stalin, Lenin, Musilini, Hitler, and Tao collectively murdered over 100,000,000 innocent people IN THE DIRECT IDEOLOGY/PHILOSOPHY/and CONSTRUCTS of Atheism promoting survival of the fittest extermination 'for a better race' . Today, atheistic/secular ideology and lifestyles encouraging moral relativism account for over 60,000,000 innocent deaths thru the murdering of unborn developing Americans while in the womb since 1973 due to sexual hedonism gone further wrong resulting in pregnancy .
Is this the kind of good secular system you were alluding to in the last century and present day America ?
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