From the Pen of David Horowitz: August 28, 2009
As soon as I began to speak, the anti-Horowitz demonstrations started. The second row of seats had been entirely occupied by members of ACT-UP the militant AIDS organization that had made headlines by bursting into a mass at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral and throwing condoms on the altar. To my event they brought giant white signs with black lettering, which they now thrust into the air in response to each statement I made. This sea of signs served to block the podium I was speaking from, screaming in giant capital letters: “LIES!†“PIG!†“BIGOT!†As if this were not enough of a statement, when especially provoked individual activists would leap out of their chairs to rant at the podium.
The first blast of the heckling threw me off balance: “What’s the matter with you?†I said to them. “I’m a conservative and I’ve come all the way to Portland to defend your rights to be who you are. Why are you trying to prevent me from speaking? Are you nuts?†This was oil on the fire, so I tried a different tack: “This is a university. If we can’t have reasoned and civil discourse here, where could such a dialogue take place? You’ll have plenty of time in the question period to make your statements. Why don’t you just let me say my piece and perhaps learn something?” The signs went into the air: LIES! PIG! BIGOT!
If you have a favorite Horowitz quote you want to highlight for others then please email it to DavidSwindle {@} Gmail.com. Please include:
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Because in reality, the leftist are the “angry mob”, thay’s why David H. wasn’t treated in a civilized manner.
JBT
Julie, You hit the nail on the head!!
I pastor a church with 17 different nationalities in attendance (and membership). Recently, I opened a message on Sodomy by inviting a cross section of the church to the platform (african, indonesian, phillipino, black, my wife, pakastani, etc. and hugged every one of them, telling them how much I loved them (in the Lord). Then I proceded to tell everybody that they had just seen a narrow minded bigot in action. The message was well rec’d and I believe that all got the message from the opening demonstration.
What I tell people who wonder why people are mad and shout at Townhall Meetings is you should see when a conservative tries to speak on a college campus. They’d be amazed.
How’s that again? How does it feel to be demeaned by “giant white signs” “screaming in giant capital letters”, by yelling “individual activists” who “would leap out of their chairs to rant at the podium” ???
Did they get their message across ?
Of course not!
Where did this all start?
Oh, “Town Hall Meetings”, that’s right.
It doesn’t work for either side. You have expressed the very same response others have when you said ““What’s the matter with you?†I said to them. “I’m a conservative and I’ve come all the way to Portland to defend your rights to be who you are. Why are you trying to prevent me from speaking? Are you nuts?†” The only difference is you used the world “conservative” and they used the word “representative” or “progressive” or whatever. You came “all the way from Portland” and they came from somewhere else.
Hope you have learned from this that supporting those who will not let the discourse take place by their yelling and name calling should not be supported or excused for their lack of decency and refusal to allow others to be heard -
no matter what their position or side taken on an issue.
Where we can’t speak, we can’t communicate. Where we can’t communicate, we can’t educate. Where we can’t educate, we give birth to ingorance and fear.
People of small minds and fearful hearts will shout down anyone who disagrees with them, instead of engaging in a thoughtful debate.
That is the difference between liberals and conservatives. Conservatives try to futher the debate, while liberals try to shut it down.
It’s only when one person thinks he’s mentally superior to another that he refuses to listen.
When in doubt, the small mind will compare their opponent to a racist and will call him a nazi-pig.
Joesph, I just experience this trend in a little town in Ohio where a Democratic fund-raising event was interrupted by a religeous zealot. The resulting frakas made news generating retorts from the organizers which support your comments precisely.
I call them “Elitists” to be kind in my assessment .
Those who say they support free speech, and only do so when the one speaking aligns
with with their narrow way of thinking, are hypocrites to the extreme when they try and
silence someone whose speech doesn’t align with their narrow way of thinking.
From the town-halls I’ve seen, it has always been the bussed in SEIU, ACORN & other Liberal community organised groups of thugs who are told to get to the event hours in advance of the advertised time, who occupy the first few rows of seats, wave their professionally made signs designed by professional community organisers, chant & shout-down any one who has a question or has a statement. They agitate & create disturbances to get the media’s attention…and in general put themselves between the ‘member’ and the perceived enemy, other AMERICANS who have just as much a right to speak & be listened to, without patronising condescension , rhetoric, doubletalk…or rude phone calls. That is what I have witnessed! Check out the website for:
http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/fight
Get a real good look at the vile display of ‘grassroots’ Liberal community organised style. Their twisted & perverse manipulation of the truth is enough to make one ill. There is nothing grass roots about this Alinsky style tactic…and there is nothing new about it as described here:
http://seanet.com/~barkonwd/school/DELPHI.HTM
Yes… Most conservatives are angry, and rightly so, but the vast majority of us are not hateful. On the contrary, the self-righteous hatred, despicable hate speech and defamation, is coming from the Liberal Left, starting at the top with members of congress and our President. We should hold them to a higher standard and expect respect…but I have seen & heard with my own eyes and ears that they are capable of neither…unless one is an adoring member of the Leftist majority. Yes…they ‘won’ as they love to boast. I suppose they think that gives them the right to be as ugly and offensive as possible. I truly believe they don’t give a damn what the conservatives think. The sooner these dangerous radicals are voted out the safer I will feel.
the left seeks to drown out those who oppose because they know they cannot win the argument with logical, civil discourse. in effect whenever they feel they will lose a battle, or know they are wrong they inject these tactics.
it should not be allowed. anyone who is allowed to give a speech should be protected. hecklers should be thrown out. (you saw what happened when someone posed a question with a different point of view when al gore was speaking)?
jjay-
If you’ve actually seen the town hall meetings and compared them with the universities, you’d see a difference in tone, unless you only see what you want to see. Plus, town hall meetings are a different playing field than universities. Also, as you may not have noticed, the quote above took place before the town hall meetings, so to say it started in the town hall meetings is contextually inaccurate.
Regardless of your opinion of the town hall meetings, the point and context of Horrowitz’s experience is to explain what has dominated our schools! Our schools, which, ideologically, are suppose to tolerate and listen to all forms of speech. Yelling and throwing and becoming hateful to a speaker at a university is a different scenario than having a meeting for just about anyone to voice their opinion at politicians. Like I said earlier, the town hall meetings have a different tone than hateful activists, but that is dependent upon your perception. You have the freedom to think however way you want, and I have no need to change your opinion. Just thought I’d give you my view on your opinion.
But let me also thank you for feeling free to voice your opinion. And have a lovely weekend. I am no way being sarcastic, sorry if I somehow sound that way. Live prosperous, my friend.
You omitted one tiny difference. He went to Portland to DEFEND thier rights. Leftists are TRAMPLING our rights. You will see. I commented earlier regarding peoples positive affirmation of things that do not negatively affect them (healthy Canandians, Brits….). Remove the Leftist veil from your eyes and you will see that the Obammies are trampling everyones rights. You screamed about it for the last eight years. We conservatives finally listened. Now that we agree you don’t? Why did the Leftist supermajority congress approve a domestic spying program that tracks cookies on private computers after they have logged off of federal government websites. Yes, it’s true. What say you?
“telling them how much I loved them (in the Lord). ”
What on earth does this mean, “I love you in the Lord?” What a bunch of hooey that is. You either love someone or you don’t.
I think I know what the Pastor means. People of faith such as him are able to allow the love of God to flow through them. Such true, Christ-like Christians acknowledge that the love they give their fellow man and all the good they do on earth is not a result of anything they personally have, but what God has put within them.
Excellent.