Listen up, you savages.
You see what I did there? Pamela Geller, a rabid, anti-Islam activist, has paid for advertisements to be placed in several New York City subway stations, calling for support of Israel and condemning “savage jihad.”
The exact message reads, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”
I don’t have to explain why this message has been ill-received.
The signs have also appeared in San Francisco metro stations, and Geller is pushing to have them in Washington, D.C., as well.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York pushed to block the signs from appearing in the city’s metro stations, citing them as inflammatory and the language as demeaning.
However, the MTA failed to silence an ever-persistant Geller, who took the case to court and won on the basis of free speech.
The issue of free speech and its boundaries has taken over the news recently. The recent budget film — if you can call it that — “Innocence of Muslims,” has incited immense violence throughout the Islamic world.
The go-to example of abusive free speech has always been “don’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded movie theater.” The fact of the matter is, cases of free speech abuse are never quite as trivial as a movie theater prank. In recent times, people lose their lives over it.
The question we have to ask ourselves is, how far is too far?
Anyone with even the most elementary knowledge of contemporary Israel knows that Israelis are just as savage as anyone who opposes them. They would just like to pretend they aren’t.
Israel’s sixth prime minister, Menachem Begin, prior to receiving his government position, was a terrorist — and I don’t use the word “terrorist” lightly. He and his associates blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing nearly 100 people.
I’m not here to defend Arabs and denounce Israelis, but rather to enlighten readers to the fact that — despite what you’ve been told by every presidential candidate in modern times — Israel plays dirty, too.
The MTA adopted a new policy in the wake of the Geller incident, allowing for the removal of advertisements the MTA “reasonably foresees would imminently incite or provoke violence or other immediate breach of the peace.”
New ads will also have a disclaimer at the bottom, stating the view expressed in the ad is not that of the City of New York or the MTA.
I’m sure someone out there — Geller most likely — will cry that this is a travesty, but freedom of speech, regardless of its consequences, must be protected.
I am a staunch advocate of free speech, free press and all that jazz, as most Americans are. However, I can’t think of a more perfect example of shouting fire in a crowded movie theater than calling anyone who stands against Israel a savage.
Isn’t that why we can’t shout fire in the movies? Because the consequences of that action could endanger ourselves and others?
Thankfully, Geller’s ads have only been met with graffiti. This is pretty much the ideal response, other than no acknowledgement of the ads by the general public.
Americans have reacted better to religious zealots and racist film-makers than the Islamic world has in recent weeks. Maybe that’s the difference: we’re so immune to bullshit here that we’re able to simply ignore people like Geller and Terry Jones.
If you take anything from this, maybe it should be that: Ignore the people who try to tear us apart.
Regardless of class, color or creed, we’re all Americans, and we’ve all seen idiots before.
