Stop A Bad Guy With Words

A GOOD GUY WITH WORDS TRUMPS A BAD GUY WITH TRASH:

As you know from reading this BLOG, I am an UNABASHED believer in the FIRST Amendment, which to me is the Conjoined Twin of the SECOND Amendment, which feeds all the FREEDOMS enjoyed by the American people.

And as a Canadian, where we don’t have either of these two FREEDOMS, which are not really guaranteed anywhere in our Constitution, it makes the American Constitution even that much more significant.

Amongst a host of things that bother me most about how so many Americans have chosen to become ignorant and/or lethargic of their RIGHTS, is the battle that is beginning to RAGE throughout the American World of Academia, where academics of all stripes are teaching the nation’s children . . . that healthy and robust debate is unacceptable, if that debate is contrary to LEFTIST beliefs.

In fact, the young people in LEFTIST schools . . . from high school to universities are railing against the part of their Constitution that enables them to speak their mind without fear of retribution . . . especially from the government.

WHICH IS A TRAGEDY – since there is open retribution coming not just from the government and government agencies for speaking one’s mind, but also from the recipients of government largesse (AKA – Tax Dollars) through Academia.

WHEN I WAS IN UNIVERSITY . . . IT WAS VERY DIFFERENT INDEED:

One of my mandatory classes in Montreal’s Sir George Williams University (1969) was Social Sciences 101, for which I had zero to no interest in attending, but since I had no choice . . . I did.

IN MY DAY . . . IT WAS LIBERALS WHO FOUGHT TOOTH AND NAIL FOR FREE SPEECH:

Oh . . . How those days have changed:

This course was taught in the late 1960’s by a very old Soft Spoken Professor, who refused to retire, who was also very much a LIBERAL in the truest sense of the word. But so was I (or so I thought).

As it turned out, this was perhaps the most important class I ever took, which was the course that had done more to help me form my opinions on the POWER OF FREE SPEECH, than anything else I could measure it to.

This professor’s favorite quote, which he repeated as often as he could, which has also been attributed in one way or another in various forms to many of the world’s GREAT Philosophers was . . .

“I may disagree with what you have to say. But, I will fight to the death your right to say it”.

One of the KEY components to this course was Public Speaking and Debating, to which I had no training, and was not eager to participate in. But, if I wanted to earn the Course Credit, it was something I had to do, as each student in this course was required.

The lead-up to the oral exams were multiple practice debates before the end of each class, where one debater would take the PRO-Side of the argument, and then reverse his or her position by arguing to the contrary.

This part of each class was open to volunteers, to which I had no inclination of joining, which was until I saw the first two students debating as real “gentlemen”, focusing on how carefully they formed, chose, and enunciated their words, and made their individual points without really ATTACKING the points of the other, no matter how mundane.

In retrospect, they reminded me of a turd like John Kerry with the big words.

SO . . . WHEN THE PROFESSOR ASKED FOR TWO MORE VOLUNTEERS – I WAS IN:

I wasn’t quite the gentleman as the previous two were. I grew up on the tough streets of Montreal. I played hockey where being good with your fists beat the hell of being good with manners. I fought in Karate Tournaments, and wasn’t afraid to get into it with a stranger in a bar or at an event . . . and no one ever accused me of being shy with an opinion.

I DON’T REMEMBER THE TOPIC . . . BUT I REALLY REMEMBER THE DEBATE:

SO HERE I WAS . . . in my first ever-official debate, which I always imagined was fought using the proverbial RULES OF THE MARQUIS OF QUEENSBURY as I witnessed between the first two debaters, but since those rules never bothered me in the past, why should they have gotten in the way then?

So, the other guy took the PRO-Side, and like the two debaters before us, he was a gentlemen, who chose incredibly good diction, taking the mandatory pauses in voice to illustrate how serious and thought provoking his ideas were. And when he finished, he literally smiled to the class and Professor like the Cheshire Cat.

I DON’T REMEMBER WHAT THE DEBATE WAS OVER . . . but it didn’t matter, because when it was my turn, I led with something like – This is the dumbest thing I ever heard, and if you would have thought about what you were saying opposed to how you said it . . . you would have kept your mouth shut and kept your ignorance a secret from the rest of the class . . . or something like that.

Before I was done tearing into this guy, he interrupted me by vociferously complaining to the Elderly Soft Spoken Professor, that I was being rude . . . plus – plus – plus, to which the Elderly Liberal Professor, who had an incredible smile on his face, told my opponent that he would have his chance to rebut, SO LET’S KEEP GOING.

When we switched positions, and I took the PRO-Side of the argument, I lit into my opponent about how dumb he was not to have defended against me when he had the chance in the first part of the debate, since he had the better side of the argument. And from there, I eviscerated him . . . AND IT FELT GOOD.

IT FELT SO GOOD, that in every class thereafter, I was always the one to debate and beat, which I NEVER LOST, since I also discovered that INTIMIDATION, COURAGE, and FACTS TO STAND-ON . . . are no different psychologically than the STARE-DOWN between two combatants in the ring before the fists begin to fly.

Many years later, when I was invited to lecture the Political Sciences Class I had attended years before at Sir George Williams University, one of the professors asked me why I never picked-up my Debating Trophy, which I had no knowledge even existed . . . let alone that I had won.

WORDS ARE THE FIRST SECOND AMENDMENT . . . before we need the Second Amendment:

And just like Wayne La Pierre of the NRA says . . . IT TAKES A GOOD GUY with a gun to stop a BAD GUY with a gun.

THE SAME IS TRUE WITH WORDS . . . IT TAKES A GOOD GUY with something worth saying who says it, to stop a BAD GUY with nothing of value or truth to say, but says it anyway.

THE ESSENCE OF THIS EDITORIAL IS SIMPLE:

When you hear, see or read a BAD GUY with BS in his or her words . . . whether on Radio, Television, Print or on the Internet – STAND UP . . . and with knowledge and TRUTH on your side, TAKE HIM OR HER DOWN, because if we don’t, they win, and we lose.

IF YOU DON’T FEEL CONFIDENT TO GET INTO THE FIGHT – SUPPORT THOSE WHO CAN.

REMEMBER THIS . . . before fists and bullets fly – WORDS WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE. And in today’s world, between the LEFTIST Media, a Dishonest Government, and a Despicable Academia, we must FIGHT and WIN before DYSTOPIA brings us over the cliff, which isn’t all that far beyond the Horizon.

Best Regards . . . Howard Galganov