Censorship Kills Ideas. Stupidity Prevents Them.

by Steve Miller

“I’m gay, I’m a Latino, and I’m a senator,” said Steve Gallardo, Maricopa County Supervisor, his voice quavering with emotion. “And it’s okay.”

Last March, Gallardo decided to put it all out on the table and let people know what he really thought. “It’s time to let people know about me. And to send people a message.,” he said. Apparently it’s okay to send a message if you’re gay and Latino, according to Gallardo, but it’s not okay if you’re white and straight.

img_7444Gallardo’s tearful appearance calling for the City of Phoenix to deny Donald Trump a venue to speak his mind aired on local news channels yesterday. You could see the emotion in his face, boiling with rage, as he called upon the city to not rent meeting space in the Phoenix Convention Center to “The Donald”. Why? Because, in his opinion, his message was filled with hate.

Does Gallardo really think that the city should deny renting a venue to a presidential candidate based solely on his political message?  Maybe he also thinks that the politician of the 20th century should be removed from his soap box and banned from the park because his message wasn’t politically correct.

What Gallardo is calling for is censorship.  Censorship is the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society and it has been a hallmark of dictatorships throughout history. FCC censors made sure that nothing related to homosexuality made it on the airwaves through the early days of television.  Do you think that freedoms such as gay marriage would have ever taken place if those ideas would have continued to be suppressed by the government today?

Whether or not you agree with an issue, the right to present and discuss it a basic civil right.

The fact is that Trump’s message wasn’t filled with hate, it was filled with truth.   Mexico isn’t sending it’s best and brightest to the border to seek a better life. Those that come here illegally are the poor, the unemployed, the uneducated. Someone told them that even with those disadvantages, they could still make it in America.

They must have also had a talk with the criminals in Mexico because those guys are showing up here too. Last week, an illegal immigrant who had been deported multiple times shot and killed a woman at the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Her father watched her die. Around the same time, an illegal immigrant in Maricopa, having been deported multiple times, ran into a Maricopa family on Papago road injuring two children.

I am not a Donald Trump fan. My message to Donald: I think you should really try a buzz cut and give up on the comb over. I wouldn’t vote for you, at least not based on anything that I have heard so far. But you do speak the truth and I appreciate that.

trump-hairHere’s my message to Steve Gallardo: It’s okay to be Latino. It’s okay to be gay. It’s okay to be a white, straight Republican too, and it’s okay to speak your mind regardless of who may disagree with you. What’s not okay is censorship. I hope to hell before you run for Congress again you take a civics course and pay special attention to the First Amendment. Or, you can ask any legal immigrant and they can explain it to you. After all, understanding our democratic system was required when they earned their citizenship.  That’s unfortunately not required of our political leadership.

I think there’s one thing that we can all agree on:  It’s great to live in a country where we can all say what’s on our mind – regardless of who it may piss off.

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