Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Red Scare Revived

Many people may remember their history well enough to recall the “Red Scare” during the Cold War. The fear at the time was that the communists were infiltrating America, so anyone who was even implicated as a communist was blacklisted. If someone was blacklisted, then his life was destroyed. He lost his job, the world hated him, and sometimes he was prosecuted as a traitor.

Does any of this sound familiar? It sure does to me! I never experienced the Red Scare but I have seen an almost identical. I am referring to the endless accusations of racism happening right now. Just recently, Dog the bounty hunter has been accused of being a racist. As a result, his show has been stopped and he has been ridiculed by the world. But this begs the question: does he have the right to be racist? The answer is, he does. Should his life be destroyed for having offensive views? Of course not. In America, the right to believe what you truly believe is sacred. We don’t necessarily agree with Imus, or Dog or others who hold racist views, but in America, we have no right to persecute them. Dog’s life will probably now be destroyed just as that of Imus was, but this is a great injustice.

We have seen other faces to this problem of liberalism. Those who do not support gay marriage are also said to be bigots. Those who believe that it’s okay for a woman not to work are called sexists. Everyone who does not hold to a liberal view of the world is being demonized. If we hold that women aren’t men and that we have serious moral problems with homosexuality, then our right to believe these things is void. How many men will stand up for our rights? How many will demand that our thoughts and beliefs are ours to have? Will we stand up for justice and fight this “Bigotry scare” which persecutes all those who make a slight mistake?

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