Free Speech

  Free speech is a wonderful concept. At it's best it is a way to protest against injustice. Or government policies we do not agree with. At it's worst it's to suppress people's individual rights or to express hatred towards a group based on religion, sexual orientation or something else that is none of our business. As much as we may not like what is being said we must all defend the right to say it. Or do we?

  Megyn Kelly, who has a news interview program on NBC, has done an interview with Alex Jones. Mr. Jones is a far-right radio talk show host who is also a well-known conspiracy theorist. What NBC and Ms. Kelly are trying to do is "shine a light" into the mind of this very controversial man. They are saying that if you can expose the absurdity behind the words and ideas, then you can keep people from falling for their rhetoric. Makes sense I suppose. However....

  Alex Jones thinks the Sandy Hook massacre of 20 school children is a hoax.  Brought about by gun control advocates. Twenty children aged 6 and 7. Twenty children. No one, and I mean no one, believes in anything enough to pretend their child has been murdered. And most certainly not twenty families. The idea is ludicrous. 

  The murder of children is condemned by everyone. Giving him an even bigger platform than he has already, almost 650 thousand Twitter followers alone, seems wrong to me. Why? Because it's children. Plain and simple. You don't use children to further your personal agenda. Period.

  The parents of these children have spoken and they don't want this interview aired. As it is they are being harassed by some of Mr. Jones' followers. They are concerned, and rightfully so, that more trouble will come their way, if and when, it makes it on the air. I can't blame them. I'm sure these families will never fully recover from the deaths of their children. They don't need to deal with conspiracy theorists banging on their doors.

  Maybe NBC will pull it. Perhaps it will be seen by millions. Either way, we all need to learn a very valuable lesson from this. There are consequences to everything. Nothing in life is free.

  Not even speech.

  Ang