THE COMMON CONSTITUTIONALIST

SPEECH IS ONLY FREE WHEN THE MOB ALLOWS IT

I still remember the first time I went to Stone Mountain, Georgia. A friend worked at the theme park there, and I was going to visit him. I drove my motorcycle from my apartment in Clarkston, maybe five whole miles, and despite getting a gazillion miles to the gallon, I ran out gas anyway. I had to hitchhike to the park where my friend and I did the whole gas can thing. Good times. Since then, I have gone back several times.

I recall what a beautiful place it is and was awestruck by the site of the Confederate Mount Rushmore – the Confederate Memorial carved into the side of Stone Mountain. Unless you are a total politically correct weenie and believe it would be a micro-aggression to merely gaze upon it, you really should see it. I did a podcast last summer regarding this very subject, and it’s still relevant today. It’s segment 2 at this link.


Unfortunately, ever since the rhubarb over the Confederate flag came to the fore last year, practically everything having to do with Southern heritage is under assault. And at least some people whose identifies are being attacked will stand up and say no, we won’t allow it. As this is still kind of a free country, freedom of speech and peaceful assembly is supposed to be allowed, and it is said to be the speech we hate that should be most protected.

You would think that’s still the case – but no – you’d be wrong. These days it appears to be whoever has the largest crowd or shouts the loudest, has the correct skin color or whines the most – only they have the right to assemble, march and protest. It’s the radical leftist creed.

On Saturday, the National Socialist Movement (NSM) held a peaceful rally at Stone Mountain Park. It was organized to coincide with Confederate Memorial Day. Simultaneously, another white-power rally was held in Rome, Georgia, attended by members of the Aryan Nation, the KKK and the NSM. Both were sparsely attended, brazen in their display of KKK, Nazi and white power flags and paraphernalia, but still peaceful.

That is until the thugs showed up. Suspecting something other than peaceful activity might occur, police had already created a buffer around the Stone Mountain rally. Like ISIS infiltrating refugee camps, Black Lives Matter type goons comingled with the hundreds of otherwise peaceful counter-protesters there to confront the NSM. One way or another these bullies were determined to confront the white supremacists and cause a problem. That’s what they do – use violence and intimidation to achieve their ends.

These dirtbags didn’t care what they had to do or who they hurt in the process – they were determined to clash with the pro-Confederate group. But the police held their line. One of the lead cops was heard shouting, “Do not move! Do not break my line!”

Normal citizens would show respect to the police, which many counter-protesters did. But not these thugs. They have no respect for anyone or anything. If they couldn’t get to rally, they would take their anger out on the cops. And so they did – throwing rocks, setting barricades ablaze, hurling smoke bombs, and one instance of a thug spraying a police officer with pepper spray was documented. Although the park remained opened, park officials were forced to close many attractions, disappointing many patrons.

Several of these masked thugs were arrested, but what struck me is that you’d never know it by reading accounts from most of the liberal press. One site reported that nine people were arrested during the demonstration but failed to specify that all nine were counter-protester thugs. Other outlets also reported on the violence but purposely neglected to tell the reader who the perpetrators were. Big surprise – I know.

I think this white-supremacy crap is for the birds, but they have every right to peacefully rally, protest and march. They can spew as much hatred as they wish, and I will still defend their right to do so.

But this is not world we live in today. There is a dangerous precedent being set, where more and more, offensive speech and symbols are acceptable things to be shut down – at any cost. And it’s the responsibility of the press to honestly report it.