Free Speech and all that

You may read this without any thought of who supports whom in the upcoming presidential election, because no matter where you stand on the issues and the candidates, if you don't understand that a basic tenet of this country is freedom of speech, we might as well call England and ask to come home.

Mike O'Meara, former co-host of the late, lamented Don and Mike Show on radio, and currently the host of his own show on internet radio, lives in Virginia.  Apparently, he supports President Obama's re-election, so he put up some yard signs to that effect.

That's still legal, isn't it?

So, anyway, a few days later, Mike gets an anonymous letter from Harrisburg PA from someone who opposes the president's re-election.  And the letter is nasty and slanted in tone - referring to Mr Obama's “socialist, communist, anti-semetic and generally anti-American” family members, friends, and political backers.

And it's signed "Concerned Citizen."  Typical lack of guts.

The great Mike O'Meara

Why would someone, as Mike says, "reach into his home" and try to bully him into removing his signs?  Have we reached the point in this country where bullying, bombastic verbal shoving have replaced any level of respect for the views of others? 

Mike says he will now not work as hard to be moderate about his opinions.  So this sort of harassment does no good, incurs wrath and ill-feeling, and contributes nothing to our national discussion.

47% of the people will never understand that this is a participatory government and they need to take responsibility for expressing themselves and allowing others to do the same.  

Gosh, I thought everyone knew that.