Re: free enterprise

["Ted Moffett" <ted_moffett@hotmail.com>]

Douglas:

Douglas Wilson wrote

>What does a liberal, progressive free speech advocate do? He argues for 
>free speech on exactly the same philosophical grounds that a neo-Nazi does. 
>"I may not agree with what you do say but will fight to the death for your 
>right to say it." You all agree with that? Of course you do; it is one of 
>your hallowed cliches. The ACLU does a regular fan dance with it. Now, what 
>could be your problem with "I may not agree with what you do with your 
>restaurant but will fight to the death for your right to do it"?

These two examples comparing free speech with the freedom of a restaurant 
owner to do as he pleases with his restaurant are legally very different 
cases.

As just about everyone who has studied the subject knows, the guidelines 
enshrined in the wise legal codes stored in those ponderous secular 
documents that embody the laws in the religiously and culturally diverse 
USA, maintain that freedom of speech is given special protection in a manner 
quite different from freedom of action in other spheres.  Thus I can obtain 
a permit to march (maybe with the help of the ACLU) in support of keeping 
the so called "white" race (we really are pink, I've always thought) 
separate from the black race, but if I own a restaurant that will not hire 
blacks, it is a violation of civil rights law.  The ACLU will not help.

I can also march in opposition to gay behavior, or write books about the 
damage done and sins committed by gays, if I choose, but to deny them 
service or employment in a business is a legally different issue.

Are you really trying to say that free speech, and discrimination against a 
group when a business denies service or employment based on a bias against 
that group over skin color or sexual orientation, are the same kind of legal 
event?

>The question is whether bigotry ought to be a crime with attendant civil 
>penalties. It is not a debate over whether it is a sin. You can support 
>someone's right to speak without agreeing with the content of his speech. 
>You can support someone's right to run a restaurant the way he wants 
>without agreeing with the way he runs it.

Yes, Douglas, I suppose you can, but according to USA law the people who 
both defend freedom of speech with those ACLU fan dances are not 
contradicting themselves, as I think you suggest, when they turn around and 
restrict egregious behavior that is carried out in action by businesses, 
such as the restaurant who will not hire or serve blacks or gays, based 
solely on a bias against these groups of people, when they are fully capable 
of doing the work required in the business, and do not force their lifestyle 
on anyone involved in said business.

Ted


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