Good Golly, Miss Molly: You're on Your Own

by J.R. Dunn - October 4th, 2010 - The American Thinker

Recently, a sad little footnote to the War on Terror -- sorry, the "Transcontinental Contretemps of Misapprehension"...did I get that right? -- passed nearly unnoticed: the disappearance of Molly Norris.

Molly Norris was a staff cartoonist for the Seattle Weekly, one of those left-of-center "alternative" deals handed out for free, making their money off the sex ads in the back pages. This incident probably marks the greatest impact the paper will ever have.

Last spring, in response to Islamist threats against Trey Parker and Matt Stone's lampooning the prohibition against portraying Mohammed on "South Park," Molly Norris published a cartoon proposing an "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." The cartoon was harmless, unfunny, and didn't actually portray Mohammed. She apologized shortly afterward. None of this served to save her. Anwar al-Awlaki, currently the most active jihadi cleric (he triggered both the attempted Detroit airliner attack and the Fort Hood massacre), issued a fatwa calling for her assassination: "her proper abode is hellfire."

This article calls what happened to Molly Norris "a sad little footnote." If it stays a footnote for Molly, it will also be a sad little footnote to the passing of a once great nation. I totally disagree with what Molly Norris believes politically. However I still believe in the traditional view of free speech in America. "I do not agree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it." That is unfortunately no longer how America feels about free speech. As I write this the totalitarian tyrants of the Supreme Court are mulling the degree of restrictions they will tolerate on what you may or may not say. Few seem to care. Even on the left there is no outrage at what happened to Molly. They abandoned her right to free speech with the same indifference they have to the free speech right of those who are conservative or libertarian.

Today, it is all about electing officials that will properly discipline any who violate the politically correct line of the day. You do not have the right to think for yourself unless you understand that before you express your views you check to see what is politically correct to say publicly. This is America today. Some say they wish to "get America back." They can start with getting outraged at the suppression of the speech of someone they do not agree with. If what happened to Molly does not get them upset, they are never going to "get America back." They are as much a part of the problem as the liberal-fascists who so adore the politically correct rules that allow them to stop thinking and simply parrot the party line.