Tuscon and the First Amendment

It’s been floating around all weekend, and early this evening the Arizona ACLU announced a flyer campaign.  Apparently they’re hoping for protests, if America’s protesters can fit anything else into their busy schedule.  Our money’s on the whole story getting lost in the shuffle; the public has gotten pretty protest-weary — but we’ll see what happens.

On April 21st, during one of a series (more…)

It’s Not The Cops

There’s a slogan:  A.C.A.B., or “All Cops Are Bastards”.  The premise is, if you’re a good person you don’t join the side of the oppressor.  You don’t don jackboots and riot gear.  You don’t swing the club, and you don’t launch tear gas.

It’s a good slogan; effective, it’s viscerally appealing.  It speaks to us where we live.

And yet it’s wrong.  Not completely, as you’ll see, but fundamentally. (more…)

A Glorious Hope

I’ve spoken with an awful lot of angry people this morning.  Most are also terrified.  It’s hard not to be when you wake up and look around, and all you see is ashes.

Take heart, my friends!  Be of good cheer!  For I tell you truly, today is a day of vast possibility, containing with it a hope for a glorious future.

No, I haven’t snapped, and I’m not drunk (more…)

No Lives Matter

Protesters are marching under a banner that reads “Black Lives Matter”.  They do this because it seems pretty evident some folks disagree, judging only based on the number of peaceful arrests for what are usually non-crimes that turn into black people being dead.

It’s a slogan that begs (more…)

Crisis Thinking: On Property

When there’s a crisis, people tend focus on the present situation and ignore the abstract, regardless of the wisdom of doing so.  This is reason enough for us to do the opposite.  And so I pose for consideration the following question:

Of what use are property rights to a man who has no property?

You’re going to hear this asked a lot going forward.  It’s an important question, and one well-deserving of an answer, but posing it directly risks missing the point of what’s been happening in Minnesota and across the country.  Because there are only two reasonable answers immediately apparent, and neither holds up to scrutiny. (more…)

I Really Don’t Know

Fires are raging in downtowns across the country, and I don’t know what to write.  I really don’t.  You shouldn’t expect reasonable conclusions and easy answers from me, not tonight.

Ever since I was old enough to understand the concept, I’ve been opposed to violence.  I try to never raise my voice in an argument because the moment tempers get out of control, people stop listening.  Human beings don’t accept new concepts very well even at the best of times, and the middle of an argument is a far cry from that.

What’s so very striking here is the mindless destruction, though that can be (more…)

Letter From A Birmingham Jail – Martin Luther King, Jr.

16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. (more…)