Friday, March 29, 2013

The haters and bigots swing into action

Dr. Ben Carson, a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, has been "uninvited" as a speaker to graduating medical students at his own university. Too conservative. Also, he is black and with his own money funds a scholarship program for poor black children. Reminds me of when the open minded librarians protested that Laura Bush, a former librarian and then First Lady, would be a speaker at ALA (2006). Each year the ALA sponsors the completely phony, trumped up Banned Books Week. Then they try to ban a speaker, the most famous librarian in the country.

Is "bullying" wrong no matter who the victim is? Or is it only wrong if the victim is gay, obese, skinny, unfashionable, nerdy, or a minority? What if the victim is bullied, shunned and called names because she is Catholic, or he is Baptist, or she is old, or he is white, or they believe in traditional marriage, or they don't want to pay for behavior which they consider sinful, like an abortion?  Is it bullying when powerful, wealthy people threaten to take away various amendments of the Bill of Rights from the masses yet retain them for their private use? Is publishing names and addresses of people who have broken no laws, indeed, followed them to the letter, bullying? Intimidation, bigotry, terrorizing, telling lies, and fomenting fear and suspicion is a behavior dependent on the intent of the perpetrator, not the morals or beliefs or race of the victim.

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