Speech Isn’t Free

[Daveparts]

Speech Isn’t Free
By David Glenn Cox



One minute and thirty-six seconds into his question to John Kerry Andrew Meyer 21 was arrested. The 21 year old student at the University of Florida was asking Kerry about his quick concession in the 2004 Presidential race and then asked if Kerry was indeed in the skull and bones secret society which also included George Bush as a member. At a minute thirty his microphone was shut off six seconds later he was arrested later a minute thirty after that he was tasered.

It all happened so fast, was it the question? Or maybe the tone of the question? Because it all happened so fast, no warning just you’re under arrest. Meyer threw his hands in the air asking, “What am I under arrest for?” That’s the question “What was he under arrest for? If Meyer’s question had been, “Gee Senator Kerry, I really loved your latest book about the environment and even though it came out ten months after Al Gore’s movie The Inconvenient Truth and covered all the same subjects it never occurred to me that it might be political opportunism.”

Would Meyer have made it more than a minute thirty-six? What if Meyer had asked, “Senator Kerry when you were protesting against the Vietnam War what would your opinion of your government been if you had been manhandled to the ground and shocked with an electrical device rather than invited inside to speak to Congress.”
There are so many questions to ask, “Senator Kerry when you were protesting the war did you ever in your wildest imagination think that some day you would be Nixon? That the cops would work for you? To protect you? From questions?

The apologist’s will say Meyer had it coming, Kerry’s handlers will proclaim innocence and Johnny will wash his hands of him. But the chance to become a hero or villain comes in a heartbeat, the room was Kerry’s, the microphone was Kerry’s.With the wave of his hand Kerry could have ordered Meyer released instead he told the crowd to stay calm, to let the Brown Shirts do their work. In that moment Kerry lost his freedom of speech.

Who wants to hear what John Kerry has to say now? What relevance does he hold now? What is John Kerry’s message to America now? The pain that Andrew Meyer felt was short lived as they tasered America at the University of Florida as John Kerry advised the crowd to stay calm. If he had said into the microphone, “Let him go right now or I’m walking off this stage,” he would have been a hero but as the juice flowed into Meyer it flowed out of Kerry.


It is rare in history that free speech ends all at once, it is humbled in to submission reduced to a mumble and those not humbled or mumbled meet with Meyer’s fate. We have free speech zones and the media whose cameras conveniently miss those who don’t agree. Tee shirts are now considered dangerous enough to ban you from events along with bumper stickers and only those that agree can come within earshot of the government.

The night falls softly without a sound as the darkness surrounds all but the stars. The birds may criticize the sunset and complain but will give way to the chirp of the crickets in unison and if disturbed and they too will fall entirely silent. Silence is their only weapon and as well their only salvation for the predators own the night. They move in stealth unopposed until a hungrier predator is encountered.

Were it anyone but John Kerry a man whose political career was made off the back of protesting an unpopular war. Now stands at the lectern and tells the crowd to remain quiet as a young man his age once is electrocuted. For asking questions similar to the questions Kerry once asked and in the same tone of voice that Kerry once asked them in.

It becomes harder and harder to maintain the illusion of free speech when you are tasered for asking a question. Denied not only your civil rights but also your human rights. Meyer was not violent yet the police where, he was manhandled to the ground while asking what did I do? Even the Soviet Blue Caps weren’t so clumsy a Teine a mien square moment when the government exposes itself as not the power of the people but against the people.

At last weeks Emmy awards Sally Field’s microphone was also cut off when she began to make a statement against the war. But the celebrities with regulars series remain silent they might lose that gig, sponcers might object the networks might change their time slot. Nothing political, nine verboten!

Our media in Iraq and Afghanistan travel with handlers from the military just like in North Korea or China. Our Generals and officials of the administration go to the Reichstag and give pronouncements but there is no surprise in the comments, we know what they are going to say ahead of time. The media know as well, it is all a stage play merely actors reading scripts.

The saddest aspect of the assault on Andrew Meyer was the reaction of the crowd who sat for the most part silently who looked away or even smiled as if it were funny. After all they were not trade unionist or Jews they have eroded from free Americans to sheep and suffer a far worse fate than a taser.

Hide from the night; peer out from your holes only to search for the dawn. Look over your shoulder for you have no friends in the darkness. The predators rule the night you have dominion only over your fear.

[Mass]

1. Only pb is that the person who shot the video was on TV saying Kerry was talking to the cops, not to

the kids...

Too bad she was in the room and not you!

The amazing thing is that all of the people in the room said the same thing , but you were not that and know what happens?

Amazing what the TV culture can do to some people.

[ShortnFiery]

3. "all of the people in the room said the same thing" - that is doubtful on it's surface. nt

[emanymton]

2. Provocative Theater ...

.
The person who got tasered was well within his rights to act as he did. He was also looking for confrontation. He got what he wanted when the police confronted him. The police played their part in removing the individual from the scene.

The use of non-lethal restraint (as shown on the video) was not required. The police used excessive force. Once the police had the person away from the stage, they had him under their control. They used the taser because they could.

"... The saddest aspect of the assault on Andrew Meyer was the reaction of the crowd who sat for the most part silently who looked away or even smiled as if it were funny. After all they were not trade unionist or Jews they have eroded from free Americans to sheep and suffer a far worse fate than a taser. ..."

Do not agree with your assessment of the audience at the time. There was nothing they could have done. There is nothing they should have done, at the time. The taser hero was playing to the video media for the sake of the show. The crowd was only a backdrop.
.