ACLU, SPLC hover over Garland shooting

Of all the public service groups I've supported over the past 60 years, two stand out: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

There was in interesting confluence of both concerning the near terrorist massacre that was averted in Garland, TX, Sunday at a self described free speech event consisting of a contest for the best cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad. 'Best' is event organizer Pam Geller's depiction of the eventual winning entry. 'Incendiary' is how the SPLC might describe it. They have been following Geller's career, which they describe as one dedicated to promoting hate against Islam and the Muslim community, for some time in their mission to track and publicize persons and organizations promoting hate instead of peace and inclusiveness. Sure enough, the highly publicized event inspired two Islamic extremists to travel from Arizona to Texas bent on massacre at the event. Fortunately, they were killed by a security guard before anyone was murdered.

SPLC was founded in 1971 as a non-profit public interest organization to "promote civil rights by fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society". Check out their website www.splcenter.org and you'll find these Geller quotes supporting their assertion she's a danger to civil discord and non-violence in America:

"Islam is not a race. This is an ideology. This is an extreme ideology, the most radical and extreme ideology on the face of the earth."
— Pam Geller On Fox Business' "Follow the Money," March 10, 2011
"Obama is a third worlder and a coward. He will do nothing but beat up on our friends to appease his Islamic overlords."
— Pam Geller, AtlasShrugs.com, April 13, 2010
"Hussein [meaning President Obama] is a muhammadan. He's not insane … he wants jihad to win."
— Pam Geller, AtlasShrugs.com, April 11, 2010
"I don't think that many westernized Muslims know when they pray five times a day that they're cursing Christians and Jews five times a day. … I believe in the idea of a moderate Muslim. I do not believe in the idea of a moderate Islam."
— Pam Geller, The New York Times, Oct. 8, 2010

That brings us to ACLU, www.aclu.org, founded in 1920 as a non-profit public service organization dedicated to "defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." ACLU's most visible activities involve freedom of speech, as they were founded to confront the rampant suppression of that sacred right during and following WWI. Their most famous effort involved defending the right of Chicago area Neo-Nazi Frank Collin to lead his swastika adorned group to march in heavily Jewish Skokie, IL in 1977. ACLU successfully prevailed in the US Supreme Court that wearing a swastika was a from of protected free speech. Had local authorities moved to prevent hate monger Pam Geller from holding her obviously inflammatory Prophet Mohammad cartoon contest, she would likely have found a fearless advocate in ACLU to proceed with her event.

Were I around with the same anti war mindset during WWI, I would surely have been slammed in the Slammer for speaking out against America's senseless and self destructive involvement. Thanks to ACLU I can do so with relatively little fear today. And thanks to SPLC we can keep track of the hate groups and hate mongers who go right up to the line of protected free speech and sometimes over the line into violence.