It’s been a while since I’ve written. 

Well, not written, but written here.  I’m working on a contract – filling in as a communications officer – and am again using words in a way I like to use them: to transmit ideas that get points across, hopefully in way that they are clearly put, easily understood, and, yes, enjoyable to read. 

I’ve written other things since, but on a volunteer basis. Too often, it seems, I involve myself in worthy projects to ‘lend a hand’ (read: “Oh thank you, this is great! Sorry we can’t pay you.”), and likely will for a while, but I vow (again) not to spread myself too thin. 

But it is this week’s use – or non-use - of words has motivated me to write again.  

More specifically, the words of right-wing media mouthpiece Ann Coulter and the words of those who wanted to stop her speech at the University of Ottawa (and succeeded after police said they couldn’t guarantee her safety from protestors). 

Now, I do not like Ann Coulter and what she stands for. From what I have read by her (and not simply quoted as saying by others), I find her a horrible right-wing zealot. What I hate about what she says and how she (and others of her crew – the Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks being the most visible) says it, is the emotions they arouse in a lot of really scary people. 

Go onto some of the tamer right-wing sites (Big Government being one) and you’ll see writings by Coulter and others, some of which are ridiculous, frustrating, irritating, etc.  

Now scroll down to the comments section.  

There are comments from readers who clearly sympathize, and from those that shout “Hurray to the truth”. But there are clear mouth breathers, bigots, zealots and absolute crazies who call on each other to join together in armed insurrection, imprisonment for those they don’t like, and even worse. Much worse. 

The Coulters and the Limbaughs and the Becks feed these people’s fears, bigotry and biases, and you have to wonder how many Tim McVeighs there are out there RIGHT NOW plotting against their government. (Update: a number of Democratic lawmakers report damages to their offices and death threats this week in the wke of the Health Care vote.  The right-wing media disavow any responsibility for any such ‘reported’ acts.) 

All that having been said, the protestors who caused the cancellation of Coullter’s speech are no better than Coulter herself. I suggest that, if concerns for safety were indeed true, they’re worse.  

Many of Coulter’s and Limbaugh’s and Beck’s ‘followers’ would prefer to silence, (or imprison or deport) those whose views are simply opposite theirs. So too did those who shut down the speech at the University of Ottawa. They likely saw the cancelation as a victory, rather than what it was: a defeat for free speech. If they did, they are the very same as the right-wing zealots they so fiercely oppose. (And, if they are the usual suspects as I remember them from my own university days and a reporter – left-wing “activists”, to use a label – who protest right-wing governments for their human rights abuses, they are also the worst hypocrites imaginable.) 

I hate their message as much as I hate Coulter’s. So too do many others (one of the best-put reactions comes from the Ottawa Citizen). 

In a true democracy, all voices should be given a hearing and the majority should decide. Either you live with it, or you get out. Read Socrates. 

A democratic society doesn’t deny on opposing position a hearing, no matter how crazy or far fetched, (save for the crying “Gun!” in a crowded dance club).  

If the majority deems an opponent’s message to be ridiculous or crazy, its members have a responsibility as a participant in that democracy to set the record straight with reason and fact. 

The Coulters and Becks and Limbaughs should be countered with simple logic and laughed out of existence, or at least shuffled to the fringes. Hey, the flat-earth society still exists, but you don’t see them drawing screaming, yelling yobs shouting “Liar”.   

Preventing speech, particularly on a campus of learning, should be considered abhorrent to anyone who believes in freedom.