[Peace-discuss] Suppose

[Ricky Baldwin]

Well, Chuck, libel, slander, defamation of character,
etc., are still crimes, and enforced more in favor of
businesses than for you or me.  So it depends on what
you mean by "untruths".

But if the "security" the mall provides is not just
ordinary safety but also a shield from those nasty
opinion-things that people sometimes (for some reason)
decide to spout, then I think it has no place in what
is still at least marginally a democratic society. 
You or I won't necessarily always agree with other
people's opinions, for example right now, but does
that mean our tax money should help build walls around
us so we don't have to hear from each other?

These are not people's homes we are talking about,
where the inhabitants don't normally throw open the
doors for certain posted hours every day, inviting in
whoever would wander in.  These are businesses, which
we encourage with tax breaks and other
you-and-me-funded incentives and which that do all of
the above.  What in fact is the significant difference
between them and most businesses in town that are
quite near to a public sidewalk?  You wouldn't want to
squash free speech there, too, would you?

Ricky 


--- Chuck Minne <mincam2 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> Suppose you are a really nice guy who owns/rents a
> store in a mall. Suppose a lying jerk comes into the
> mall and pickets your store with all sorts of
> untruths. He claims free speech. Or suppose you are
> black and the KKK sets up a table and pickets in
> front of your store – and claim free speech.
> (Naturally, you are in the mall because that is
> where your customers have migrated to; you had to
> close your outlet that had been in a street
> storefront, partly because it lacked the security
> the mall provides.)
> 
> 
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