Connect with us

Gay Rights And Guns. Essential Liberties?

Published

on

Gun Rallies. Militias. Tea Party Patriots. Gun Rights. The Oklahoma City Bombing. The Second Amendment. Columbine. Waco. Gay rights.

Which of these doesn’t go with the others?

Actually, none of them. Because all of these are about what Americans perceive as “essential liberties.” The issue is not everyone agrees on all of them. Gay rights, I believe, mean greater equality, freedom, and liberty for all. Maybe you believe gun rights mean greater equality, freedom, and liberty for all.

Regardless of your position, these are the issues all Americans are talking about today, the seventeenth anniversary of the death of 81 Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and the fifteenth anniversary of the death of 168 in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Tomorrow will be the eleventh anniversary of the Columbine massacre, in which fifteen, including the two high school students, died.

To “celebrate,” there are two gun rallies today, one in Washington, D.C., and one across the Potomac. The first, thankfully, isn’t “open-carry,” given D.C.’s gun laws. The one across the river, is. Guns will be loaded and openly carried in the nation’s first gun rally in a public, national park.

MSNBC this morning offered an “interview” (more like an open platform) with one of the gun rally organizers, who proudly proclaimed that the second amendment is the amendment that gives us the civil right to protect all our other civil rights. That claim went unchallenged. And it was bunk.

Let me be clear. I love our country. I love America and all the things I was taught growing up in the ’60s and 70s that America represented. Freedom. Liberty. Truth and justice for all. And equality. Which includes gay rights.

But let me also be clear. I grew up. And I saw what uncontrolled greed and hate can do. And Waco and Columbine and Oklahoma City happened after I formed my opinions.

While many believe the “right to bear arms” is enshrined in the Constitution, many others believe the right to marry is as well.

There can be, and should be, strong limits placed on acquiring guns, carrying guns, and using guns. I believe, and statistics confirm, that more guns mean more gun violence. (32 Americans die every day from gun violence. Eight of them are children.) And if the purpose of government is to protect its citizens, surely protection from gun violence should rank high on its list of priorities.

Liberty and freedom mean as much the protection to do what you want to do as they do the protection from others doing what they want to do to you.

Americans, all Americans, need government protections. “Small government” means less rules, and less rule-enforcement. “Small government” is not an idea that makes sense in a twenty-first century that has seen a global financial meltdown due entirely to unbridled greed and bad decisions. “Small government” is not an idea that makes sense when insurance companies and banks are bilking every dollar from every American they possibly can. But is “small government” an idea that makes sense when gay couples are separated by the government, despite legal protections already in place, have their belongings auctioned off, and placed in separate nursing homes, and die alone?

And to that I have to go back to the beginning and look at our Constitution. And ask this essential question:

Why is it the very people who claim to believe in small government, in limited government, are the very first to use government to deny gay and lesbian Americans our Constitutional right to marry, to serve openly in our military, to deny same-sex couples the right to adopt children, to legally marry and form legally-recognized families?

Government’s role is not to limit rights and freedoms, but to expand them. And, to protect those who need protection. I don’t see how carrying loaded weapons expands liberty or freedom. Perhaps you don’t see how my right to serve openly in the military, adopt children and raise a family, and marry the man I love expands liberty or freedom.

But the one thing I do see is this. Mine affects no one but me and the man I love. Surely, that is the essence of what should be protected in the name of freedom and liberty.

(Image: Caleb Eigsti)

Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

‘They’re Coming After Our Children’: Watch Casey DeSantis’ Dystopian Fear-Mongering Ad

Published

on

The imagery is dark. The words are defiant. The message is dystopian. An ad for Republican Governor Ron DeSantis‘s presidential campaign, currently “in turmoil,” features the First Lady of Florida, Casey DeSantis, issuing a warning: “They’re coming after our children.”

The ad never quite says who is coming after the kids, but the video (below) includes clips of President Joe Biden and former Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of the war on COVID and the now-retired Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

While it was first released over the summer, it received little attention. Casey DeSantis on Friday reposted her “Mamas for DeSantis” ad. It comes in the wake of the alleged ménage à trois sex scandal involving an unnamed woman who has accused Christian Ziegler, the head of the Florida Republican Party of rape. His wife, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, who reportedly confirmed the consensual three-way sexual relationship, is Casey DeSantis’ “best friend,” according to Florida Politics publisher Peter Schorsch.

“In America, we’ve witnessed a lot and put up with enough,” Casey DeSantis says in a voiceover at the start of the two-and-a-half minute video.

“We’ve been forced into silence,” she charges, amid a baby crying and a COVID mask being put over a child’s face. “Into compliance.”

“Told that we must ‘trust the science,'” DeSantis continues, in a direct attack on Dr. Fauci, showing him speaking during the height of COVID in the Trump administration.

READ MORE: ‘Significant and Imminent Threat’: Trump Gag Order Largely Upheld by Appeals Court

And in an attack on LGBTQ children and adults, she says: “We’ve been told that we must deny truth. Back down. And look the other way.”

“Enough is enough. When you come after our kids, we fight back. Because there’s nothing we won’t do to protect our children,” she says.

Seconds later, the video shows President Joe Biden declaring, “Our nation’s children are all our children.”

“We will not allow you to exploit their innocence to advance your agenda. We are no longer silent,” Casey DeSantis declares. “We are united. We have finally found our fighter.”

Casey DeSantis praises her husband, saying he will do for America what he did for Florida: “Schools: opened. Parents’ rights: defended. School choice: universal. Critical race theory: prohibited. DEI: stopped. Child mutilation: illegal. Girls’ sports: saved. Communities: protected. Our economy: growing. And freedom: guaranteed.”

READ MORE: ‘Dystopian’: Potential Trump Cabinet Picks Send ‘5-Alarm’ Shock Waves of Terror

In the section where President Biden says, “Our nation’s children are all our children,” Casey DeSantis doesn’t explain that those words came from a White House celebration honoring Teachers of The Year from across the country. The President was praising an Oklahoma Teacher of the Year whose district includes students who speak 62 different languages, so she had to work hard to ensure everyone felt included. She had said, “There’s no such thing as someone else’s child.”

Nor did DeSantis acknowledge that Governor DeSantis’ performance for children has been poor.

The Florida Policy Institute, which says it is “an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organization,” in September warned “368,728 youth aged 20 and younger” have been cut from Medicaid. “Because Florida has not expanded Medicaid, the vast majority of those losing insurance during this time have been children, parents, young adults, and new mothers.”

Florida ranks 35th in child well-being (with 1 being the best), according WUSF, citing the Kids Count Databook from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Some critics on social media blasted Casey DeSantis’ remarks.

“Republicans refused to extend child tax credits that pulled 2 million children out of poverty. They resist the idea of free school lunches. Yet they come up with bullshit about their opponents ‘coming after our children.’ Yes, we’re coming after them, to give them a sandwich,” wrote former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob.

READ MORE: Jobs Report Forces Fox News to Admit Biden Economy ‘A Lot Stronger Than Anybody Understands’

Watch the Casey DeSantis video below or at this link.

Continue Reading

News

‘Significant and Imminent Threat’: Trump Gag Order Largely Upheld by Appeals Court

Published

on

A Washington, D.C. federal appeals court Friday afternoon largely upheld and reinstated U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s very narrow and limited gag order on Donald Trump for his trial on charges related to his alleged efforts to subvert the U.S. Constitution and overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“We agree with the district court that some aspects of Mr. Trump’s public statements pose a significant and imminent threat to the fair and orderly adjudication of the ongoing criminal proceeding, warranting a speech-constraining protective order,” reads Judge Patricia Millett unanimous three-judge panel ruling, posted by Lawfare’s Anna Bower. “The district court’s order, however, sweeps in more protected speech than is necessary. For that reason, we affirm the district court’s order in part and vacate it in part.”

The judges upheld the gag order “to the extent it prohibits all parties and their counsel from making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding.”

READ MORE: Jobs Report Forces Fox News to Admit Biden Economy ‘A Lot Stronger Than Anybody Understands’

They also upheld the gag order “to the extent it prohibits all parties and their counsel from making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the Special Counsel, (2) members of the court’s staff and counsel’s staffs, or (3) the family members of any counsel or staff member—if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staff’s work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is highly likely to result.”

The judges removed from the gag order “speech beyond those specified categories.”

“We do not allow such an order lightly,” the judges added. “But Mr. Trump is also an indicted criminal defendant, and he must stand trial in a courtroom under the same procedures that govern all other criminal defendants.”

Bower explains, “Chutkan’s order would have prohibited statements that refer to special counsel Jack Smith as a ‘thug’ or ‘deranged.’ But the appeals court order does not apply to speech about the special counsel himself.”

CBS News congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane sums up the ruling: “Much of the gag order in Donald Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy criminal case in DC is *REINSTATED*.”

READ MORE: Peter Doocy Admits No ‘Concrete Evidence Joe Biden Personally Profited’ From Hunter’s Business

Continue Reading

News

Peter Doocy Admits No ‘Concrete Evidence Joe Biden Personally Profited’ From Hunter’s Business

Published

on

In a report focused on House Republicans’ plan to vote on a resolution to open an official impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy told viewers there is no evidence of impeachable offenses.

“The House Oversight Committee has been at this for years, and they have so far not been able to provide any concrete evidence that Joe Biden personally profited from his son Hunter’s overseas business but they are going to try again with this impeachment inquiry set to start next week,” Doocy, who often criticizes President Biden in White House press briefings, said Friday on Fox News Business.

Other news outlets this week have also stressed Republicans have come up empty-handed.

The right-leaning news outlet The Hill, reporting on the resolution Thursday, noted Republicans’ current investigation “has struggled to connect President Biden to the activities of his son, and they’ve failed to prove their most salacious allegation — and the one that would be most key for impeachment: that the president accepted a bribe.”

READ MORE: Jobs Report Forces Fox News to Admit Biden Economy ‘A Lot Stronger Than Anybody Understands’

One of the main pillars of Republicans’ allegations against President Biden, the “narrative that President Biden pushed Ukraine to fire its prosecutor to help his son, who served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burimsa, has largely been refuted,” The Hill also reported.

“Republicans have engaged in wide-ranging inquiry into Mr. Biden for months,” The New York Times reported Tuesday, “hunting for evidence to back up their allegations that he corruptly profited from his family members’ overseas business dealings and accepted bribes. To date, they have failed to deliver compelling evidence to back up their boldest claims.”

Watch Doocy below or at this link.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.