Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes all the same

There’s a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same­

–Malvina Reynolds

I believe I can express opinions about any subject I choose, regardless of how I was born.

No one is required to pay attention to them.  My opinions may be ill-considered or insufficiently informed.  They may simply be wrong.  I’m still, however, allowed to have them and express them in appropriate places.

I didn’t choose to be born straight, white, male, or with the genes that would lead me to diabetes.  I’m no better than anyone else because of how, when, or where I was born.  I’m also no worse than anyone else because of my birth.  I neither invented nor encouraged the privilege I have.  I neither invented nor encouraged the disadvantages I have.  They appeared long before I did.

I’m better or worse because of my behaviors, my choices, and the way I treat others.

No one is disqualified from having an opinion because of their birth.

I would oppose anyone being told they can’t express opinions, even opinions with which I disagree.  I may choose to ignore opinions that have no value to me.  I welcome everyone to ignore my opinions if they have no value to you.

But I won’t be told I’m not allowed an opinion because of things over which I had no control.

I hope you understand.

Fred’s Facebook Page, May 4, 2022, 7:22 PM

In general, I think of myself as a Liberal.  This surprises no one who has ever spent more than five minutes talking to me, reading my work, or scrolling through my Facebook page.  I’m in favor of workers’ rights, the idea that healthcare is a human right, that poverty is an unwarranted evil, and that people should be whomever they choose regardless of the feelings of the majority.  Those are liberal positions.  I prefer AOC to MTG.  Liberal.  I prefer workers to corporations.  Liberal.  I prefer helping people to forcing them to live lives of misery.  Liberal. 

“We all need some therapy, because someone came along and said ‘liberal’ means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on communism, soft on defense and we’re gonna tax you back to the Stone Age, because people shouldn’t have to go to work if they don’t want to.  And instead of saying, “Well, excuse me, you right-wing, reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, Leave It To Beaver trip back to the Fifties…!”, we cowered in the corner, and said, “Please. Don’t.  Hurt.  Me.” No more.  I really don’t care who’s right, who’s wrong.  We’re both right.  We’re both wrong.  Let’s have two parties, huh?  What do you say?”

— Bruno Gianelli, The West Wing, Season 3: Gone Quiet, written by Aaron Sorkin

Yeah.  That’s me.  I’m a liberal.  And I take the heat for that.  I’ve lost friends because of that.  And that’s okay.  That’s the price of having opinions.  You can’t change the world without pissing off somebody, somewhere, sometimes.  I don’t go out of my way to annoy people.  I try to be calmer and more thoughtful in the way I put things than Bruno does, but, in the final analysis, I’m a liberal. 

However…

Liberals are supposed to be about rights.  We’re all about ensuring the underrepresented among us have voices that are heard.  We’re about The Outliers on the Bell Curve.  We favor the rights of gay people to get married.  We favor the right for transgender people to join the military.  We favor the rights of women to choose abortions if that’s the right choice for them in their individual situations. 

But, here’s the thing.  I’m told now that I’m not allowed to have opinions about any of these things, or that if I have them, I should be quiet because as a straight white male it doesn’t apply to me.  It’s the Liberals who are telling me to shut up.  My white male privilege disqualifies me from speaking.  And that pisses me off.

That’s what I was saying in my quiet and polite way on my Facebook page. 

There’s an idea now that you’re a member of a team, whether you signed up or not.  The Liberals are required to believe A, B, C, and D.  If you believe only A, B, and C, you’re a traitor to the cause.  The same can be said of Conservatives.  And, to a great extent, those are the only two games in town.  There are subgroups, of course.  Smaller boxes inside of larger boxes into which you are required to fit.  But everyone must get into their box, and everyone must follow the rules of that box. 

I object to that idea.  Remember I’m the guy who spouts, “There is no Them; we are all Us,” about 35 times a week.  But, I’m not female, so I’m not Us.  I’m not Black, or Gay, or Transgender, or Gender Fluid, or a Millennial, or an abused child, or a rape victim, or whatever else you’ve got, so I’m not Us.  I don’t fit into those little boxes, so I’m not allowed an opinion.  That is 47 different hues of horseshit.

I’m a human being.  Everyone else, in whatever categories they fit, in whatever boxes they occupy, is also a human being.  I share that with them.  Yes, they have different experiences than I have.  That’s true.  Some of them have had unimaginably horrible, evil, unthinkable experiences.  Many are oppressed.  I don’t deny that my life has been less horrible than many other lives.  It’s been more horrible than many other lives, too.  So what?  So I don’t get to comment on the human condition?  What crime did I commit that caused that right to be taken from me?

I’m about equal rights for Everyone because I believe I’m a part of Everyone, and Everyone is a part of me.  When you deny a person of their right to speak, you deny me mine.  When you deny a woman the right to bodily autonomy, you deny me mine.  When you deny an unborn child the right to live, you deny me mine.  Human rights that are reserved for a few are not human rights.  They’re privileges we’ve decided to grant to some and deny to others. 

Obviously, there are rights for which one must be qualified.  I have no right to drive a big rig down the highway.  I don’t know how to do it properly, and it’s more than a little likely someone will get hurt.  I have no right to perform an open-heart surgery because I’m not qualified.  Those rights, though, are based on my choices.  I didn’t choose to learn how to drive a truck or perform surgery.  If I had, those rights would be available to me.  But… the right to speak?  To write?  To express an opinion?  Nearly everyone is qualified for those things.  They are basic to being human.

I’m not Black, so I can’t have MLK as a hero?  I’m not Catholic, so I’m not allowed to admire JFK?  I’m not a woman, so I’m unqualified to love the messages of RBG or Maya Angelou?  That’s delusional.  I’m also not a Republican, so by this thinking Lincoln is off limits for me.  I am what all of these people are: Human.

Our Common Cause should be making humanity Free.  That’s the point of The American Experiment.  America, however, didn’t invent it.  We’ve been working on it since at least 507 B.C.E.

In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or “rule by the people” (from demos, “the people,” and kratos, or “power”).  It was the first known democracy in the world. 

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy

We can, we do, and we will continue to disagree about how to make everyone free, but let’s at least recognize that’s what we would all like to do in America.  We’re supposed to be “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.”  I think most of the world wants Freedom, at the very least, for themselves.  I would like it for everyone because I’m a part of everyone and everyone is a part of me.

Some of that means allowing everyone to speak.  History shows us the good guys are never the ones that are silencing voices.  You can ignore them.  You can debate them.  You can find them stupid or ridiculous.  But you don’t get to silence them. 

A good idea for Liberals would be to recognize their friends and refrain from attacking them for having the audacity to state an opinion for which you’ve decided they’re not qualified.  I grant you that straight, white, male, Christian landowners have a history of oppressing everyone who wasn’t a part of that small group.  We have fought against that oppression, with at least some success, for centuries.   Now that we’ve won some power, we’re going to commit the same immoral acts against which we’ve been fighting for so long?  We’re going to oppress our oppressors?  Sorry, I won’t sign up for that.  We’re fighting for equality for all.  Let’s focus on that instead of becoming our own enemy.  Please never tell me again that I’m not allowed to speak.  Thanks very much.