Excerpts Of Remarks As Prepared For Delivery At The National Action Network Convention "Keepers of the Dream Dinner."
Tonight, I want to talk about intolerance and inequality and the insidious way they feed on each other, hurting not only the people and groups they target, but all of us and the future of our country. ... There can be no question of how much intolerance this country can tolerate; we have already tolerated its effects for far too long.
And let's be crystal clear: Intolerance affects everything, starting with our economy and ending with our ability to lead at a time of massive global change and new threats to our security.
I don't just talk about these issues here—racial intolerance, the two Americas that still exists—I talk about them everywhere I go, because it's silence that allows them to survive and even thrive. {emphasis added}
It is nice when you can give a speech on intolerance while being intolerant.
Look, I generally find it easy to counter-argue racist views. However, we get nowhere by condemning them or by creating an environment where they are intimidated from expressing their views.
The heart of the first amendment is tolerance. Tolerance for allowing others to speak their piece, no matter how much we disagree with it. We can debate the merits of their position, but we should never circumscribe their privilege.
One cannot help but suspect that Senator Edwards doesn't have an intellectual reply to racist language (He was referring, of course, to Don Imus' remarks). His response is to simply to condemn intolerance by being intolerant.
So, Senator Edwards, how about a little tolerance?
1 comment:
Keep up the good work.
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