Thursday, April 13, 2006

Freedom Isn't Free: Inspirational words.

Freedom of speech is at stake here, don't you all see? If anything, we should all make cartoons of Mohammed and show the terrorists and the extremists that we are all united in the belief that every person has a right to say what they want. Look people, it's been really easy for us to stand up for free speech lately. For the past few decades, we haven't had to risk anything to defend it. One of those times is right now. And if we aren't willing to risk what we have now, then we just believe in free speech, but won't defend it.

How the hell does South Park become the voice of reason in controversy after controversy?

That quote was from the recent two-part episode of South Park, lampooning both the recent Mohammed cartoon controversy and the TV show Family Guy. The show even skewered the news media. For all its cheerleading about the First Amendment, news outlets were the first to back down and refuse to show the Danish cartoons that were causing so much strife in the Muslim community.

The media didn't withhold those images out of respect -- they enthusiastically show any other images that offend any other group or religion if the controversy has news value. The media censored themselves out of fear.

This is why we're fighting the global War on Terrorism. The Muslim terrorists are offended by our freedoms, which they see as blasphemous, and they wish to kill us in retaliation. While our government is taking the military battle to them overseas, we need to wage our own battles against terrorists here at home.

But the media keeps chickening out. Comedy Central apparently refused to show an image of Mohammed on the last South Park episode. But network executives were fine with depicting an image of Jesus crapping on the American flag during the same episode. What's ridiculous about this whole controversy is that South Park already showed an image of Mohammed years ago. It wasn't controversial then, so nobody noticed.

The only difference now is that we are at war with terrorists. And too many people are buckling under the pressure.