THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

I use the word "subtext" a lot because it is the only word I know that covers the concept. Normally, subtext is used to describe the reason an Old West movie is not supposed to get a helicopter within camera or sound range.

But what about all the sermons we hear about "the poor we have with us always," that go on and on about the poor. The poor were the Subtext. What Christ SAID was that the crowd should realize that the poor they have is with us always, but he was right there in front of them for a very limited time.

Preachers didn't preach about THAT, even in the old days. Today they use that quote to concentrate on their REAL religion of Political Correctness. Before, it ended up being about the poor or about tithing.

To Jesus, speaking to the people and knowing that his death was near, was not thinking about contributions to SPLC or money to make fat bishops fatter. It is even a bit much to say that ALL the sermons preached on the subject with that title were not even subtext to Jesus when he said "the poor we have always with us."

And what he MEANT is not even up the level of subtext in any sermon I have ever heard on the subject.

But the only accurate word I know is subtext. As I say, it usually means what is taken for granted, as in "The Old West had a distinct shortage of helicopters." But when someone says so and so saw him, the subtext is that He saw that somebody.

When Derbyshire and Buchanan were fired, the columns they had written about blacks were unquestionably true. The important subtext is that The Truth is No Defense. That has a deep history in the United States. The Truth is no Defense was rejected by Americans in a famous New York case as early as 1685, and the Alien and Sedition Acts were thrown out, not by courts, but by the electorate.

In fact, the issue of the truth is no excuse was a major basis of the 1800 election, and it was the ELECTORATE, not the courts, who got rid of them.

In fact, rejection of the Alien and Sedition Acts threw out the last Federalist House, Senate, President. The last Federalist official to hold national office was Chief Justice John Marshall, who stated that the Supreme Court IS the Constitution.

With the SUBTEXT, it is odd to look to the Supreme Court to DEFEND the Bill of Rights.

Voters in 1800 would have recognized the reason the Right fired Derbyshire and MSNBC fired Buchanan.

Raoul Williams kept insisting that the words he got fired from PBS for saying were perfectly correct.

But you can only deal with subtext by SILENCE.

The minute the difference between the American freedom of speech attitude and the British attitude is raised, The Truth is No Defense is put into its historical context, a breach between us that never healed and makes us non-Britons, and they are LOST.

So all the left, the center, the tame conservatives, AND the "extreme right" either join in silencing that question or have never heard of it and wouldn't use it if they had.

When you've got a TAME opposition, you don't need a Conspiracy.