COMMENTARY: Disdain Shown For US Principles

— Does anyone doubt, after the events of last week, the reason the United States of America must remain strong in its defense against tyranny?

Americans were killed because someone expressed a viewpoint.

Frankly, I couldn’t believe the news out of the Mideast last week. Outrage over a YouTube video’s content disparaging Islam’s Prophet Muhammad sent protesters into the streets in Yemen, Afghanistan, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and other locations. In Iran, “Death to America” chants came from the streets in front of the Swiss Embassy, which represents U.S. interests there.

In Afghanistan, the government took steps to prevent the off ending video from being seen.

Some of this is driven by anti-American terrorists who are probably sitting back laughing at how easily they can manipulate crowds of people by spreading the work of a few misguided Americans and blaming it on the “Great Satan” of the United States.

The video was made by tiny group of people inCalifornia who deserve to be ignored, but their ideas now have a platform on the world stage. And thousands take the actions of a few idiots and blame an entire nation for them.

Repugnant as that viewpoint is, the fact it can be expressed in our country is a stark contrast to the kind of world many of the week’s protesters would impose if given the opportunity.

The killers of U.S.

Ambassador Chris Stevens and others were people who believe they have every right to dictate what viewpoints can and cannot be expressed, and violation of their rules permits them to carry out death sentences.

Talk about a hate crime.

If some American in our nation killed a Muslim based on his expression of a viewpoint, 99.999 percent of Americans would rightlycondemn the violence. Yet last week, it appeared many in the Arab world, while condemning the violence, also seemed to send the message if you play with fire, you’re going to get burned.

“The Prophet Muhammad and Islamic sanctities are red lines for all of us,” said Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.

Well, let’s talk about red lines. The United States was founded on the principle of freedom. Without freedom of thought and speech, there can be no overall freedom.

Perhaps it’s getting a little easier these days to fi nd Americans willing to give some of that up in the name of going along to get along, but our Founding Fathers were prepared to die in defense of liberty and many of them did.

Many Americans have died since in service to this nation.

Freedom draws people to the shores of this great nation, yet it also creates a mistaken notion among some folks that freedom leads to peace and harmony.

It doesn’t.

Free speech is a messy business. But there can be no true freedom without it.

Those who kill to suppressa viewpoint do not celebrate freedom and thus stand against the basic principles of the United States of America.

Our founding beliefs respect life, because it supports the concept that a bad idea or expression can be handled by the expression of a good idea, not murder. So it is we see American citizens who are appalled at the crass and disgusting effort by these filmmakers to denigrate a religious faith.

The killers and violent protesters are the wrongdoers in all of this. There should be no hesitation to condemn their actions in plainspoken language.

Let us all condemn the hateful message apparently conveyed in a film made by idiots, but we do so with words, not with killing.

It is a true coward who must resort to violence to suppress another person’s expression of ideas.

The U.S. ambassador’s death will be for nothing if our government doesn’t stand firm behind the concept of free speech in our nation.

GREG HARTON IS THE OPINION PAGE EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 09/17/2012

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