Alright folks, I'm going to engage in a little free speech here in my blog.
I was encouraged this morning when I turned on "The View" and the women on the panel addressed the Jimmy Kimmel suspension. I was concerned that since "The View" is an ABC (Disney) owned show, that they too would be muzzled. Thank God they weren't. Whoopie explained that the day after Jimmy Kimmel's suspension by Disney, they didn't respond immediately until they had time to digest (my words) what happened. Then their Friday show was a repeat. Today they addressed the elephant in the room. Free speech is alive and well on their show and they assured their audience that they will not shy away from this issue. Thank God! I was so relieved. I believe once you have lost a platform like "The View", that they would give in to the bullying and intimidation that this gangster president and his enablers are perpetuating on us, the we would be pretty far down the road to just another banana republic ruled by thugs and criminals.
Now to address the troll who left this vile comment on my blog about "Free Speech" last week.
First, I believe in free speech and I believe in her right to express her opinion, vile as it is. Yes, it is a woman. I've been blogging for twenty years now and I've had my share of trolls. I discovered years ago this one persistent troll was a woman. This I believe is also a woman. Her name is "Melissa". She found my blog through my comments left on Spo's blog. She used to leave occasional comments on my blog but her comments turned ugly when I posted an anti Trump and MAGA post, which I will remind her is my right to do as a citizen of this country. A right guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Since then she has left her hateful comments, which she has a right to do (free speech) but I also have the right to delete her comments. This one I'm not deleting because I want the world to see what people like me, who love the United States and believe in the Constitution, have to live with. I copied an image of her comment (she left it under "Anonymous", coward that she is) but it may be too small for you to see. I'll retype it. See below:
"You do know ABC could have moved him to Hulu. You hate this country so much go live in Canada. But your cheating ass won't do that....I have forwarded. your blog to the Immigration Dept :) Why should we allow you to bring Pat if you hate this country?"
Okay, let's dissect her comment. She states "You hate this country so much....". No sweetheart, I love this country. That's why I am concerned that the Convicted Felon who occupies the White House and thug enablers are trying to take away our constitutionally protected right of free speech.
Check our the second statement she makes "Your cheating ass..." Where does that come from? Oh, she's making a statement about my personal life which is none of her business. Who in the hell is she to pass judgment on my personal life? It's none of her goddamn business what living arrangement Bill and I had worked out. NONE OF HER FUCKING BUSINESS.
Then check out the threat she makes about "turning in" my blog to the Immigration Department. She's going to "turn me in." What's this? Nazi Germany?
When Bill and I lived in Pennsylvania, new neighbors moved to the property adjoining ours after we had lived there for about eight years. When the wife and her mother found out that Bill and I were "gaywads" (their term), they "turned us in" to the local police department. Yes, they literally bragged to their friends that they "turned in those fags." You know what happened? The police chief, who ironically was named Ray Copp, laughed them out of his office. He asked them "What did they do?" She said "They're gay." He then asked her again "But what did they do?" She repeated "They're gay". When he threw her out of his office she tried the Crying Routine. The false tears didn't work this time which obviously had worked before. Then a few days later she had her kids and two other neighborhood boys stand on the border between our properties and yell "Fags get out of here!" I heard noise up on the border and opened the window to hear clearer but Bill said "Don't. Just ignore them." Bill came from that Old School of hiding. Not me. I came out at twenty-one years old and I wasn't going to go back in the closet for anybody, especially a homophobe bitch like that woman and her mother. When I opened the window and heard what they were yelling I called the police immediately. A few minutes later I watch as the township police car rolled up their driveway. The dad realized what was happening and scooped up his two kids and the two neighborhood boys took off running through the woods to their home. The officer knocked on their door and talked to her (I assume because the dad took off in his car with the two kids). I don't know what he said to her but a few days later I received a hand written note from her kids and the two boys (they were all in the ten to twelve year old range) apologizing for their hate speech. Apparently the woman learned that it against the law in Pennsylvania to harass your gay neighbors. From that time on Bill and I never had a problem with her in the next eight years we lived next to each other.
I've always stood up to bullies. From my school days to my Army days to my adult days and even today, when I'm old and feeble, I will not be intimidated by anybody for just being and exercising my right of free speech on my blog.
Of course there are limits to free speech. You cannot yell "FIRE!" in a crowded building but one can express their political opinion. This woman has a right to express her opinion about me and Bill but she doesn't have a right to have her kids stand on the border between our properties and have them yell homophobic slurs at me and Bill, disturbing our right to have a peaceful home. Ironically Bill and I moved out of Philadelphia after hearing about another gay couple's house being harassed on a regular basis by homophobes in the nearby Irish American neighborhood. We thought if we moved in the middle of the country we would have peace from that hate. Oh how wrong we were.
Where I live now, in coastal Delaware, I haven't encountered that much homophobia. Oh yes, I have encountered some. A few years ago Pat and I were walking down a street in Rehoboth Beach and a carload of young guys road by and shouted "Fuck you fags!" It wasn't like Pat and I were holding hands (we weren't of course, Pat would never do that). We were just two men walking down a street talking. Ask me how many times in my life I've experienced young guys riding by in a car shouting "Hey fag!" Many, many times. Once they even tried to run me off the road in Provincetown as I was walking on a country road to the motel where my friend Bob and I were staying. When I lived in center city Philadelphia and left the gay bar late at night to walk home; the usual ritual was a group of South Philly kids would show off for each other by riding by and shouting "Fuck the fags!" I imagine they're still doing that. So I'm used to the hate and vitriol. You wouldn't think I would have encountered that in such so called friendly places like Center City Philly, Provincetown and Rehoboth Beach but folks, I'm talking from experience. Homophobia is alive and very much continues to be with us.
I'll tell you what's really funny. Pat likes Trump. Yep, he likes Trump. But we don't talk about it. He knows how I feel and I know how he feels. I am a firm believer in his right to have his own opinion. And he feels the same way about me. Just as my very good neighbor Bob M. feels. Bob M. is a widower like and and very Trump (has a hat, bumper sticker and sign in his garage.) But Bob respects me as I do him. And he respects my right to have my own opinions and to express them as I do his. We just don't discuss politics. Now my brother Isaac is another matter. We haven't spoken for several years now. He's deep into the Cult. The last time we spoke was when he was screaming at me that George Floyd killed himself and not the police officer who knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes, choking George Floyd to death. Isaac is lost to The Cult. I can't help him. He will go to his grave with his delusional lies.
To sum up, I realized that the advice is "Don't engage with the trolls." I don't directly engage with them. And as I mentioned before I've had my share of trolls on my blog the past twenty years. But I feel better now having exposed this particular one, who is so hateful that she felt she had to make her pathetic attempt to hurt me and Pat. Why? Because she doesn't believe in the First Amendment just like the Mob Boss who presently is inhabiting the office of the President of the United States.
