WHAT WAS MAURICE'S BIG CRIME? | 2003-06-28
What was Maurice Bessinger's big crime? Wal-Mart said that one of the pamphlets he sold in his restaurant said that black Americans were lucky their ancestors were brought to America as slaves.
Every one of us who were raised with black people has heard at least one black person say that. As Whoopee Goldberg put it, "Am I an African-American? I've SEEN Africa. I'm an America."
I've seen Africa, too, and any American black who has seen that place had better be glad he's here.
In Africa, black people STARVE to death. I know Jane Fonda talks about "starving children in South Carolina," and leftists talk about starvation all the time. But if you ever saw a real human being really dying from hunger, you would be ashamed to use that word in America.
So Bessinger's pamphlet certainly had a point.
But the question is not whether Bessinger is right or wrong. The question is, did he have the right to have that pamphlet in his own restaurant?
Libertarians would have raised hell if anyone had boycotted Bessinger for a Communist pamphlet. We have not heard one single word from any of those brave libertarians organizations and all the conservatives are hiding as usual.
Bessinger fought Red Chinese and North Korean Communists in Korea. But that doesn't mean he has any of the rights to free speech he fought for.
By the way, you remember who the Red Chinese are? They're the ones who seized an American plane a little while back and held it hostage. The Red Chinese are the ones who produce half the goods Wal-Mart sells.
You remember who Wal-Mart is? Wal-Mart is the company that is boycotting and ruining Bessinger.