Hat tip to Luke for a great John Stuart Mill quote I somehow missed:
“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind…The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it…If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: If wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error…We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.”
The philosophical tie that binds these otherwise odd bedfellows is belief in the birthright of Americans to run their own affairs, free from centralized control. Their hallowed parchment is Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, on behalf of the original 13 British colonies, penned in 1776, 11 years before the framers of the Constitution gathered for their convention in Philadelphia. “The right of secession precedes the Constitution—the United States was born out of secession,” Daniel Miller, leader of the Texas Nationalist Movement, put it to me. Take that, King Obama.
Today’s devolutionists, of all stripes, can trace their pedigree to the “anti-federalists” who opposed the compact that came out of Philadelphia as a bad bargain that gave too much power to the center at the expense of the limbs. Some of America’s most vigorous and learned minds were in the anti-federalist camp; their ranks included Virginia’s Patrick Henry, of “give me liberty or give me death” renown. The sainted Jefferson, who was serving as a diplomat in Paris during the convention, is these days claimed by secessionists as a kindred anti-federal spirit, even if he did go on to serve two terms as president.
The anti-federalists lost their battle, but history, in certain respects, has redeemed their vision, for they anticipated how many Americans have come to feel about their nation’s seat of federal power. “This city, and the government of it, must indubitably take their tone from the character of the men, who from the nature of its situation and institution, must collect there,” the anti-federalist pamphleteer known only as the Federal Farmer wrote. “If we expect it will have any sincere attachments to simple and frugal republicanism, to that liberty and mild government, which is dear to the laborious part of a free people, we most assuredly deceive ourselves.”
To the swaying sounds of “Jesus is the light, that ever shines, in my soul” sung out strong by what seemed like way too few people for the sweet booming music they made, Reverend McAllister’s service was a celebration in every sense of the word. His sermon, more poetry than speech, complete with musical rests and crescendos, staccato and fortissimo, wisdom and humor, holding on and releasing.
I was conscious of the roots of their faith, the worship bequeathed from a mother and father to their children, and to their children, and to theirs. I was also conscious of the places in their tradition of worship that briefly kissed my Episcopal tradition. Obviously, we are neighbors. There’s beauty in these roots, both in where they touch and where they diverge. Something that grows so long from roots is strong.
During the portion of the service where Episcopalians say “the Peace” by reaching to the neighbors around us – sometimes with a handshake, a hug or a smile, Rev. McAllister’s congregation walked… they walked halfway down the long row of pews, they walked down the other aisle, they walked up to the alter, they walked just about everywhere. Men and women bouncing around; touching, laughing and hugging… all while seeming to save especially sincere words of welcome for me.
I couldn’t just sit in place – on the opposite side of town – and find the new neighbors I met on this Sunday. I wonder what would change – if like the congregation at Bethel AME – we all walked just a bit.
We had the distinct pleasure to introduce John Marks and Craig Detweiler – Purple State of Mind – this morning to a wonderful Leadership Florida audience in Orlando. We did it from Israel…
Shall we work on civility in the Middle East next?
The bet that America’s founding fathers made about religion in the 1st amendment when they passed the provision that Congress shall make no establishment with respect to religion and when Jefferson and Madison got through one of the most amazing documents in all American history the “Statute of Religious Toleration” the bet was made was that religion would flourish, that it would prosper, that it would bloom on the strictest possible condition: That you never made heterodoxy, someone else’s religion, a crime. You couldn’t prosecute someone for infringing on what other people took to be religious orthodoxy, you couldn’t lock them up. And from that moment, the founding fathers who were mixed in their degrees of devotion. (Jefferson didn’t think that Jesus was the son of God (but he believed he was a great moral teacher, others were more conventional.) But from that moment on, America flew a flag in my view of very great moral grandeur. It committed itself to toleration as a source of civil union. Let a thousand flowers of religion bloom, they will not hurt us. As Jefferson said very movingly, another person’s religious beliefs “neither break my leg or pick my pocket.” That was a majestically brave thing to say. And the first amendment stands. I wish that our wars in places where they rub up against theocracies like with the Taliban weren’t simply viewed as a matter of pragmatic national security. I’m all for charging the ramparts waving on Jefferson’s statute on religious toleration. We should take comfort and a sense of moral decency from that.
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
i LOVE summer break. a break from excessive schedules, no homework, no piano practice to force down anyone’s throat… and i think summer break should reach out and share the love with all aspects of our lives. really, why do kids get all the breaks? we can incorporate a little summer-ness into other things and that would just be so refreshing.
summer should be the time when we take a break from our political divisiveness and just sit and relax and pass a can of pringles (the official snack of summer because who eats pringles during the other nine months?) while sitting around a pool. listening the kids splashing and all of us discussing ideas and asking someone to slather some more lotion on our backs and could you pass the pringles?
i love summer time. and get that little spot below my shoulder, it was burned last week.
“Because if you’re connected to different ideas, whichever way the wave breaks you’re at the crest. If you’re way over on one side or the other, the wave will break and you’ll be underwater.”
Tonight at 9:00 PM, “The Hal Turner Show” will talk about the recent killing of an abortionist and what the shooter did wrong. No, not the shooting itself; but rather what he did wrong that got him caught! We’ll talk at length about how to carry out such an act and significantly reduce the chances of getting caught. Lets face it; America is in big trouble and only force and violence are going to clean it up. Tonight, we’ll talk about how to use force and violence and not get caught.
Reacting to U.S. Court of Appeals decision that upheld a Chicago firearm ban, Turner posted pictures, office addresses, a map and a picture of the building with arrows pointing to the offices of the three judge panel, saying that home addresses were soon to follow.
Then there was this (the “straw” on the arrest warrent) just a few posts down (link added):
TRN advocates Catholics in Connecticut take up arms and put down this tyranny by force. To that end, THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT ON “THE HAL TURNER SHOW” we will be releasing the home addresses of the Senator and Assemblyman who introduced Bill 1098 as well as the home address of Thomas K. Jones from the OSE. After all, if they are so proud of what they’re doing, they shouldn;t mind if everyone knows where they live. It is our intent to foment direct action against these individuals personally. These beastly government officials should be made an example of as a warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die. If any state attorney, police department or court thinks they’re going to get uppity with us about this; I suspect we have enough bullets to put them down too.
Apparently this is nothing new for Mr. Turner. From 2006 during the debate on immigration reform and amnesty, posted on Mr. Turner’s website:
ANY MEMBER OF CONGRESS WHO INTRODUCES, CO-SPONSORS OR VOTES IN FAVOR OF ANY SUCH AMNESTY WILL BE DECLARED A DOMESTIC ENEMY AND WILL BE CONSIDERED A LEGITIMATE TARGET FOR ASSASSINATION.
