tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155133175831479740.post4348904778995848385..comments2024-02-16T04:05:23.512-05:00Comments on Rev-elution: Protesters claim Shauille "Shaq" O'Neal censored documentary on the life of Mumia Abu-JamalREV-elutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08726120253716456109noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6155133175831479740.post-2741632810977009002013-05-23T13:22:50.718-04:002013-05-23T13:22:50.718-04:00Let's discuss just two issues:
Censorship - T...Let's discuss just two issues:<br /><br />Censorship - The act of suppressing or deleting information deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds. <br /><br />The Mumia movie is being screened at multiple venues and his books and articles have been publicly available for years. He's hardly been censored. The Supreme Court has ruled in favor that "firmly established principles" of free speech law, including "the right to decide not to disseminate" the speech of others is valid. Thus, the decision by Shaquille O'Neal to not show the film at a single movie theater he owns is fully compliant with free speech law and does not meet the definition of censorship. The same rule applies when a newspaper editor declines to publish one of your columns. That's not censorship of your views, which are readily available in a number of public forums, but just a business decision that is protected by the law.<br /><br />The Mumia movie will be shown in Durham, NC. No police will bar the door for those who wish to see this propaganda piece. Which is as it should be.<br /><br />Plus, nobody wants either the historical or current issues of the Black Panthers to be "censored." In fact, much of society wants them aired, if only to expose the ineffective and often illogical thinking that comprised the movement. Racists everywhere would welcome publicity of the methods and violence of the Black Panthers. So, your argument falls flat in that regard.<br /><br />The second issue is whether Mumia is guilty of the crime for which he was convicted (a conviction upheld by multiple appeals courts). There are numerous on-line forums that discuss this issue. None that support him take issue with his own outrageous intimidating and politicizing behavior at his original trial nor with the multiple ways in which he undermined the accomplished attorney that he himself selected. In other words, you believe that only racism was responsible for his conviction and absolve Mumia himself of any responsibility for is own actions. Two relatively impartial web sites discuss his case http://www.danielfaulkner.com/original/Pages/CaseFacts.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal .<br /><br />How do we sign a petition to free a man without solid evidence he is not guilty? How do we ask authorities to overturn a conviction that Mumia HIMSELF helped to occur? Is it because he is black? Or that his work with the Panthers had noble intentions?<br /><br />Does branding this case as "polarizing" a nation not become hyperbole? Most people in the nation neither know about or care about Mumia, therefore are unable to be polarized in the issue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com