Boy Scouts Lite

                                                                    

I have a dream. Chances are it's not your dream. In fact you'd probably abhor it, and condemn me for having it. In my dream, there's no penalty for calling someone a “nigger” or a “guinea” or a “spic.” There are Boy Scout troops that prohibit homosexuals, and colleges that don't admit women. I dream of segregated lunch counters and hotels that prohibit Jews. As I said, it's my dream, not yours.

Let me begin with the disclaimers: I'm a kike,ⁱ a neocon, and I'm an old man. Thus I'm disqualified when it comes to saying anything intelligent about our modern, democratic, Christian society. But I won't let your biases stop me. I have my own views and I have my own blog. If you don't want to read it, that's your right. So if you want you can stop right now. Your loss.

The bases for my views are the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. They're documents once revered, but now viewed as antiques which may only be cited in patriotic speeches since they're so out of date that they can't be taken seriously any more.ⁱⁱ Yet they remain the foundation of the world's oldest constitutional republic. Whatever their imperfections, they work.

The principles, doctrines, and laws they contain, however, apply only to the government. The private sector has – or, at least, should have – considerably more latitude.ⁱⁱⁱ The rights of the individual as opposed to those of our government constitute an important distinction, one of which we should all be aware, and one that is part of the structure of the American dream. It matters. It helps keep our republic alive, and, as Martin Luther King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Thus I will not be silent. I will speak out for prejudice, hate speech, and segregation.^iv

It's not that I support those positions. I don't. But that's my choice, and should not limit the rights of others.^v I fully believe that there are acts permitted to “private” individuals and organizations that would be viewed as unconstitutional or contrary to law when involving “public” ones. The government^vi should not attempt to control what anyone thinks, says, or even does as a private individual, unless his actions directly or indirectly cause physical damage to others. And then he should be punished for the harm he has caused – not for the thoughts or words.

So let me get back to my dream, for I have only related part of it.

In my dream, there's no penalty for calling someone a “nigger” or a “guinea” or a “spic.” There are Boy Scout troops that prohibit homosexuals, and colleges that don't admit women. I dream of segregated lunch counters and hotels that prohibit Jews. But there are few who use epithets and a diminishing number of those who listen. The insults have lost their sting because they elicit little response. Human nature may not change but inhumane actions may.

In my dream, also, the segregated Boy Scout troops, colleges, lunch counters and hotels are open but empty. No one is interested. And there are numerous alternatives, public and private, to those facilities, some with and some without governmental funding, that provide equal accommodation to all takers. The change will take place because of economics rather than compulsion. People's actions will change as they forget the old, and unrewarding, practices. Even their prejudices will fade as they learn that no one is interested, and that it is more productive to move on.

As Reverend King said, our children “will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin^vii but by the content of their character.” Nowhere in his “I have a dream” address^viii did he suggest that people should be forced to act properly. He knew too much about our weaknesses to even suggest that. His hopes were pragmatic as well as idealistic.

Perhaps we share a dream.

Next episode: “Take It From Whomever” – Everything you may or may not have wanted to know but didn't have time to ask.

i         That's not the way I view myself, but I know there are many who see me that way. And that's their right according to the Constitution.

ii        In fact, I'd bring them up to date myself if I could. But for now they remain in effect.

iii      Hillsdale College (and, perhaps, others more recently) refuses all government support and declines to participate in any governmental programs, so that it will not be subject to any strictures that derive from involvement in any relationship with it. The college is a strong supporter of the Constitution, and prides itself on its independent status and its refusal to sell or compromise that independence from governmental regulations while enjoying the liberties guaranteed it by our Founding Fathers.

iv      Actually I view arrogance, corruption, violation of the ten commandments, and complicity in the seven deadly sins as greater threats to our republic than these.

v       When their actions are unrelated to, and not dependent on, any governmental authorization. Our ancestors recognized and accepted what we find intolerable: you can't change human nature. It has to change itself. The best you can do is to make it clear that society itself is proscribed from involvement in immorality.

vi      And self-appointed censors.

vii     Nor sex or religion or any other such extraneous criterion.

viii    http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf