Today I am grumpy about the attack on the First Amendment of our Constitution.

Today I am grumpy about the attack on the First Amendment of our Constitution.

Starting late last week a controversy erupted over the proposed building of a mosque and Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan near but not next to “Ground Zero” and it quickly escalated into a full fledged assault in the First Amendment. Nothing says more about American freedom than the First Amendment. Freedom of religion and of speech it’s what makes us Americans after all. Yet it is that very freedom that we have had to defend time and time again is again under attack. Not foreign dictators, not by some strange religion, not my some power looking to gain an advantage but by fear. Fear of something different, fear of what we don’t understand, fear that if we don’t give all those things we cherish the most the boogey men terrorists will come and get us.

For as long as long as there has been a First Amendment it has been under attack. In fact the armed forces oath of enlistment includes language, “…that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..” for good reason. Many have served and died, many are serving and dying right now, and unfortunately many have yet to do so, defending our country, our constitution, and our freedom. But today the greatest enemy isn’t the radical terrorists hiding in caves in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (They are dangerous and they are indeed out to get us.) The greatest enemy of freedom is fear and those who use it to gain political advantage. Regardless if you’re liberal or conservative we owe it to those who serve, our children, our grandchildren and to ourselves stand up and shout out that this attack on our freedom will not stand.

Freedom is rarely lost suddenly. It is lost incrementally. Jacques Prevert coined the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”, and popularized in John Milton’s LOST PARIDISE. Be it efforts to stop hate speech and political correctness on the left or stamping out indecent speech to forcing religious views on the right, might sound good at the time but erode and diminish our freedom. Over time it eliminates freedom altogether. Last night Keith Olberman, yes I know you righties hate him, used Pastor Martin Niemoller's description Germany’s decent into Nazism to illustrate this point:

"They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."

I am not a Muslim and I am sure that most of you aren’t either. But I am compelled to speak up because if I don’t who will be there to speak up when they come to take away your religion or my religion.

On September 11, 2001, 9-11 radical Islamic terrorists crashed hijacked airliners into the twin World Trade Center towers in Lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania (due to the bravery of the plane’s passengers). I as was everyone shocked and angered over this senseless act of cowardice. The Islamic terrorists hate freedom and hate any religion that isn’t their perverted interpretation of Islam. They hate our freedom and they hate our culture of freedom. They want a war between the west and Islam. They are using fear and intimidation to meet those objectives. Yet these radical terrorists don’t represent Islam anymore than fundamental Christian identity groups or the KKK represents all of Christianity or white people. Former president bush even warned against taking the 9-11 attacks out on all Muslims. Yet when there is a proposal to build an Islamic center anywhere near the Ground Zero site they are calls for the government to stop it giving the terrorists the victory they wanted on 9-11.

First they came for the communist then they came fore the Muslims, who will they come for next?

So why are we so afraid and who is making us that away? Why are we so willing to give away our freedom when so many have given up so much for us? If we let someone take away the freedom of some one who isn’t like us who will be left when they come for us? Why are we surrendering to the terrorists?

This isn’t about slapping our sensitivities. It’s about defending the constitution against enemies foreign and domestic. It’s about those who will use fear to gain power and take away our freedom. It’s about America damnit and if we don’t stop this now who will? So stand up and shout out loudly and often that this attack on the First Amendment, this attack on freedom, this attack on American won’t stand.