Product reviews & articles from real people =)
100% Satisfaction Guarantee!
As dangers often do, threats to citizens' free speech and privacy issues often arise on average days.
The most recent threat against American citizens' free speech arose in the aftermath of an exchange between a presidential candidate and a plumber, who asked a question that the candidate answered in terms that troubled many voters.
The citizen's question was about the candidate's desire to raise taxes. The candidate's answer struck listeners with a sour tone, for he used the words "spread the wealth."
"Spread the wealth" is not "help the poor." It is "give me your money so I can do with it what I will, so I can claim to 'spread it around for you.'" "Spread the wealth" is a term based on the idea that there is an economic pie, and that the size of the pie, though set by people's hard work, is set and static. "Spread the wealth" is based on a Zero Sum Game philosophy that says there is only so much to go around; nothing is growing. It says, "Others' hopes, dreams, plans, and hard work cannot build better days for them as your hopes, dreams, plans, hard work and sacrifice have done for you. I want to take from you more then you are giving now and give it wherever I decide is best. Give it to me. Trust me to spread your wealth around through tighter US tax laws."
The questioner who elicited the "spread the wealth" comment from a candidate, Barack the Senator, identified himself as Joe, a plumber. The public heard the "spread the wealth" answer Barack
ave to Joe, and the public reacted so sharply against it that Joe the Plumber took on folk-hero status.
However, in the eyes of the candidate and his running mate, Joe the Senator, Joe the Plumber took on pariah status. They decided to fight against Joe the Plumber and deflect attention away from the "spread the wealth" answer at the same time. In public and as often as possible, they would paint Joe the Plumber as Joe Buffoon. They would make him the object of public mockery, insult, and ridicule, and they would even bring in all plumbers and other laborers as objects of ridicule, as buffoons en masse.
No one who planned the attack with and for the candidates foresaw that the attacks against Joe the Plumber would ricochet back onto the attackers. No one foresaw that citizens would see this as a free speech issue.
The people saw it, though. They saw it and got madder and madder. Even so, Barack the Senator and Joe the Senator have ratcheted up the pressure against Joe the Plumber, a regular guy and a citizen with free speech rights and privacy rights.
Such shameful attacks against a private citizen should be confronted and entirely rejected. Another Joe comes to mind, Senator Joe McCarthy. He ruined private citizens' lives with words of attack that led to vicious witch-hunts, one individual at a time. Senator Joe Mac's demeaning words developed so slowly that one wonders if he could have imagined that he would abuse power so cruelly.
I find chilling any politician's ridicule of private citizens. It goes beyond the shameful ridicule of groups of people, as has happened by the same campaign in Pennsylvania.
It is one thing for two candidates to hit hard at each other with words. That is politics and candidates know the game. But candidates and elected public servants should be called to answer for any effort to ridicule a private citizen in such public, stirred-up, emotional ways. The next step, if they are not called on this, is their intimidation of the press, including free speech in any and every form of media.
The ridicule of any private citizen who questions politicians tightens the grip of their abuse of power and position. The only way to pry that grip loose is to speak up against it and vote against it. We must be "Pro Joe," if it's Joe the Plumber and any other private citizen whenever this happens.
As private citizens, we still have the right to question and to speak our minds freely, yet a barrier against fearless free speech has been raised. We need to point to, attack, resist, and break down that barrier.
I am Pro Joe, if ...it's Joe the Plumber. He now represents citizens' free speech rights under attack. The threats and the dangers are clear. It is fitting, given American history, to use words of fact and truth, not ridicule or intimidation, as swords sharpened for success in such a fight.
Jane Bullard is an American writer who lives near Washington DC. Her articles appear in print and on the Internet. Highland Books UK published her book Not All Roads Lead Home in 1996. Opine Publishing published the US edition. Jane writes for Opinari Quarterly, a Christian writers' newsletter.