Douse the flames

Sun., Feb. 2, 2020

Jon Barron’s words, as quoted in Shawn Vestal’s Sunday, January 26, 2020, Spokesman-Review column (“Can free speech cross the line?”), are the equivalent of shouting “fire” in a theater.

“Alex Barron, the self-styled “Bard of the Redoubt,” officer of the Kootenai County GOP and candidate for the Idaho Legislature, took the stage and issued a challenge for those in attendance.

“What,” Barron asked the crowd, “are you willing to kill for?””

Concern over inflammatory language is not a matter of free speech; the question is whether we quietly and willingly accept targeted hate speech which normalizes a call for violence or call it for what it is: fear mongering and a way to divert us from the real issues that confront 98% of us. With hate crimes on the rise, this is not the time to strike a match.

Katherine Schutte

Newport

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