The right to freedom of speech is non-negotiable. It can't be withheld due to the potential threat of violence.
I have and continue to have serious disagreements with the policies of the current administration. To some in this country that in and of itself is act of treason. I'm not an anarchist. I would not and will not condone any acts of destruction of personal or private property. By the criteria you present my presence at the convention would be disallowed. I cannot be an agent to assist in political profiling of citizens based on group affiliation. Who will I "out"? The Green Party? The Libertarians? RepDems? If I step forward and point to a person and say, "I don't think you should have a voice in the current political discourse" then what kind of American would I be? I appreciate the problems Denver will have concerning public safety. It will not be easy to balance the rights of citizens with the multiplicity of people who want to do harm, both foreign and domestic. I am only speaking for myself here. I don't believe using a blog/vlog to prevent another person's from expressing their political freedom of speech or to address concerns to their government is appropriate. Challenge, yes. Dispute? You Betcha. Profile and prevent other expression based on political affiliation? No. Gena http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com --- In [email protected], "Patrick Cook" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi everyone: > > As you might imagine, the city of Denver (Which is proudly my back yard BTW) > is now working with various groups to address the issues of free speech vs. > security for the Democratic National Convention. > > I bring this forward to this group because this is the most, and the > biggest, politically active group (Other than the co.* hierarchy of > newsgroups on USENET) that I know. > > However as we all know and as history will be quick to bear us out, WHENEVER > there is a politically charged or politically controversial event that takes > place, there will be at least FIVE groups who sole goal is to cause trouble > for every group whose sole goal is to comply with the law while having their > demonstration, political rally, or other event. > > I think in order to prevent another San Francisco (You know what I'm talking > about), those of us videobloggers who are politically active need to start > doing is start exposing some of these anarchist groups (When I say > "anarchist" groups, I mean groups who openly admit they have NO INTENTION > WHATEVER of complying with the law while they conduct their event) and give > them as much bad publicity as possible. > > Some might think that this idea might backfire as they will have been given > what they want, which is publicity to begin with. But my hope is that they > get so much negative publicity in the blogsphere (Which we're a part of and > which is what the mainstream media gives credence to at the present moment) > will take notice. As that happens, so will the proper authorites. > > Now, don't get me wrong. I AM **NOT** AGAINST FREE SPEECH. In fact, I'm > all for it. But the last time I checked, the First Ammendment or any other > free speech rights DO NOT give ANYONE the "right" to go running around town > destroying other people's property (Someone feel free to correct me if I'm > wrong on this :) ). This is what we as political activists and other > politically active individuals need to address and stamp out IMO. > > Anyhow, since this is only indirectly related to videoblogging (And even > that is due to part of the community), I won't ask for further discussion, > though if others out there *want* to discuss it further..... :) > > > Cheers :D > > -- > Pat Cook > Denver, Colorado > WEBSITES - AS MY WACKED OUT WORLD TURNS - http://pchamster.livejournal.com/ > PAT'S REAL DEAL VIDEO BLOG - http://patsrealdeal.livejournal.com/ > Pat's Health & Medical Wonders VideoCast - > http://patshealthmedicalwondersvideocast.blogspot.com/ > MY LIVE CAM - http://patscam.camstreams.com/ > YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/amwowttv/ > THE PAT COOK SHOW - http://www.livevideo.com/thepatcookshow > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] >
