The Twins have also moved Ben Revere to Rochester so that he can play every day. Clete Thomas from Detroit will become the Twins extra outfielder.
Instead of dwelling on a bad Twins team, I'd like to talk about Ozzie Guillen and free speech instead. Ozzie was quoted as saying he "admired" Fidel Castro last week and is now serving a five game suspension from baseball.
There was more to his interview, and I can understand why the large Cuban-born population of Florida was angered by Ozzie's remarks. BUT what really bothers me about all of this is that Ozzie was suspended by MLB for expressing a non-popular, poorly thought-out belief.
Ozzie, when given more time, expressed himself much better, and apologized for some of his remarks.
But the question remains. Should someone be suspended from their job just because he has an unpopular opinion? What if Ozzie really did mean what he said originally, should that be enough to get him or anyone else suspended (or even fired?)
This is still America, right?
It wasn't really hate speech. (Another term that I'm starting to loathe.) He was actually saying he LIKED someone. That this person has brought misery to many others is actually, believe it or not, beside the point.
Personally, I have many deep-seated beliefs that are becoming less and less popular. At the same point I don't consider myself an extremist. I don't believe that name-calling is appropriate in any situation as it really does escalates hate and violence while making dialog increasingly difficult. Calling people who exhibit that activity by increasingly vulgar names isn't going to help the situation so I see a need for discussing issues more rationally. But if I think a certain form of behavior, for instance, is wrong, I should be able to discuss that openly shouldn't I?
Am I allowed to point out hate speech myself even though its currently acceptable?
Let's find out. The occupy Wall Street movement has evolved into a nationwide occupy movement. People are breaking laws nation-wide to protest something they believe in. What do they believe in? As far as I can tell they HATE rich white people. And the more they speak, the more vile their speech becomes. If hate speech is not allowed in America, then why is the occupy movement allowed to grow? Because someone, somewhere has decided that it's okay to hate people they believe are (in their minds) somehow hurting them. In other words, they are expressing poorly thought-out beliefs. Are these people in the majority? As far as I can tell from polls, the answer is no. Which means it's also a non-popular belief.
Go back and re-read the beginning of this article and you'll discover that's the same thing Ozzie was SUSPENDED for.
Except that these people are expressing their hate with venom while squatting illegally.
Tell me WHY one of these things is okay, while another is not.
Freedom of speech has always meant that you are free to express unpopular opinion. Freedom of speech has always meant that you are allowed to say things that may actually upset others. Speech that is popular doesn't need to be protected because the majority have no problem with it.
But we are slowly, incrementally, changing what free speech means here. We lost true freedom of speech in this country years ago. We continue to lose a bit more every year. Let's not be afraid to mention it when we see it. Otherwise there will come a point n the future where we will not be allowed to mention it.
Ozzie has already reached that point. Eventually most will, and we won't even know when it happened.
Sadly, I don't believe most will care.
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