The First Amendment Right that is granted and guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution is an absolute right. That much is certain. Ask Mayor Bloomberg who defended the right of the Florida pastor who plans to burn about two hundred Qurans. Bloomberg should know. Well, he “should” know. Except that one is not supposed to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater, and there are nine or so words that no one is "legally" allowed to say in public or to be broadcast to the public. Also, one cannot “incite to riot” , whatever that might mean - I guess it would depend on the circumstances, right? One is supposed to say only the “truth” when under oath - does that mean you have been deprived of one of your God-given rights when you swear to God to tell the truth, the absolute truth and nothing but the truth? All of the constructs of education and medicine would probably be weakened if teachers and doctors were to tell only the truth instead of promoting learning and healing through cagey encouragement, and of course, it would totally devastate both religion and politics if ONLY the truth COULD be spoken.
Let's face it. Rights imply Responsibilities. The "rights" we speak of were not given to us by some beneficent sovereign being, they were won through endless encounters on both fields of battle and halls of debate. Americans are not the only people to enjoy these rights but the use of them does imply responsibility for their effect. The American Way - and perhaps the Bloomberg way - to handle all this is to just ignore it and it will go away. The isolated incidents of course do “go away”, eventually. The problem is that the pattern of reoccurrence becomes strengthened . Most of the rest of the world ignores these American idiosyncrasies because those oddities don’t affect them. But now comes Terry Jones and his Quran burning.
Terry Jones, an alleged preacher from Gainesville, Florida who wants to burn Qurans, says he doesn’t want Americans to forget 9-11. Apparently he doesn’t want us to learn from 9-11 either. In programs broadcast on the air, Mr. Jones has said that the U. S. government has given up on keeping God “in the country”. He indicated that he feels God has been taken out of the schools, out of governmental activities and out of all aspects of life. Apparently Mr. Jones has attributed a lot of this perceived decline in Christianity to Islam. The Quran burning seems to be his attempt to awaken America to his understanding that Islam is evil, of the devil, the cause for all of our current problems, and bring us all back to our Christian senses.
Jones has a Doctor’s degree from The California Graduate School of Theology, an unaccredited institution in Los Angeles County, which - even though they did give him his honorary doctorate in 1993 - has now said that he never attended class there even for a day, and they are not happy with his planned Quran burning or teaching. He is a former manager of a hotel someplace in Tennessee and makes money today from renting property he owns in Pinelles County, Florida, and selling furniture through an on-line store which is located in his church. He has been in trouble with the State of Florida for several years over questions of “tax evasion” and was apparently forced out of a position as pastor of a church in Germany over the same problem. Mr. Jones is reported to have been seen recently wearing a pistol while on the church property. Seems a strange stance for a man of peace - carrying guns, evading sales taxes, burning somebody else's book they hold to be holy.
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