Since some mod/admin decided that the topic I made earlier should be merged with one that has nothing to to with the subject matter, I thought that I would make a new one that focuses on one part.
A 33 year Air Force veteran evidently does a
traditional flag folding speech so good that a military member that was retiring asked him to do the speech at his retirement ceremony. The problem with the speech? It mentions the word "God". I'm actually kind of surprised that some of our resident admins/mods haven't added that word to the filter yet.
The problem is, the military deemed that the speech couldn't be recited because of "the word" and tried to block the retired Senior Master Sergeant from doing so, even though the retiring Master Sergeant specifically asked him to do so in his own PRIVATE and PERSONAL retirement ceremony.
This should be disturbing not only to veterans like me, but to everyone.
What happened is even more disturbing. The young military members present at the ceremony physically removed the retired Senior Master Sergeant from the ceremony.
When you have military members suppressing free speech and freedom of expression, then we have a problem. When you have a member of our military that is retiring after serving us for 20+ years being refused to celebrate his/her retirement because of "a word", then we have a problem.
This is where we are headed folks. When the military is censoring free speech by force, there is a problem. That is exactly why some of the other topics such as gun control are talked about on this very forum.
Pics or it didn't happen.
If it did happen, I have a very serious problem with it.
Quote:Pics or it didn't happen.
If it did happen, I have a very serious problem with it.
Follow my second link above and decide for yourself.
Quote:Follow my second link above and decide for yourself.
What I see there is a few sentences full of language designed to inspire the outrage of pointy-eared theocrats everywhere without any real substance, even a statement from the "assaulted" airman to back it up. Like I said, pics or it didn't happen. If it did happen as relayed by that paragraph, then that's a huge problem.
Lol. Pointy eared theocrats? I didn't know Spock down like that.
Bruh... Theres a video. This is disgusting.
Quote:Bruh... Theres a video. This is disgusting.
Disgusting isn't a strong enough word to describe it.
If it was a "private and personal" retirement ceremony, why did he have to run who was speaking and what they were saying by the military? And if he was denied permission to do the speech and stood up to do it any way, being removed is hardly "assault".
The Air Force Reserve said in the statement it "respects and defends the right to free speech and religious expression."
It does state that the reserve had to issue this statement and that the principles couldn't be reached for comment. Its not a contradiction, they're at the beginning of the coverage.
Good grief people. Go to the second link JIB posted and read the whole thing and watch the videos, the second one being the one where he is forcefully removed while beginning his speech.
Quote:The Air Force Reserve said in the statement it "respects and defends the right to free speech and religious expression."
It does state that the reserve had to issue this statement and that the principles couldn't be reached for comment. Its not a contradiction, they're at the beginning of the coverage.
From Military.com:
Quote:A source who was present at the event told the military blog that Rodriguez was there at the request of the retiree, but had been banned from the base by the squadron commander.
A spokesman from the reserve said that the confrontation stemmed from "an unplanned participation" at the event.
"Rodriguez ignored numerous requests to respect the Air Force prescribed ceremony and unfortunately was forcibly removed," a Travis official said in a statement to FoxNews.com. "We will continue to investigate the situation fully."
That was in the fox report. That in no way contradicts what I said, what jag said or what Americas said.
The story doesn't go into detail about why Rodriguez was barred as eleventh door said and that's why I posted the quote demonstrating that while fox didn't feel comfortable making a definitive report about the reason that religious expression is a part of the equation.
Quote:That was in the fox report. That in no way contradicts what I said, what jag said or what Americas said.
The story doesn't go into detail about why Rodriguez was barred as eleventh door said and that's why I posted the quote demonstrating that while fox didn't feel comfortable making a definitive report about the reason that religious expression is a part of the equation.
No contradiction was implied, just supplementing. Eleventh Door didn't mention Rodriguez was previously banned from the base and ignored numerous requests to "respect the Air Force prescribed ceremony."
Sounds like there's some history here.
Quote:Disgusting isn't a strong enough word to describe it.
This is right. He will sue, and I hope they all get punished. Despicable. This kind of stuff is why I can't stand liberal doxology. If this stands this will be the destruction of Americas last trusted institute, the Military. Once that is considered untrustworthy there will be no branch of government that is respected.
He had been previously banned from the base. Therefore, he was trespassing, and was removed. If he'd been praising a different deity, you'd be singing a different tune. As I suspected, the original link left some key details out. I have all kinds of problems with the concept of a memorial service being thought-policed, but my original assumption was true. The first article left out facts to send people like our pointy.-earred theocratic friend into a feeding frenzy, and it clearly worked.
Quote:He had been previously banned from the base. Therefore, he was trespassing, and was removed. If he'd been praising a different deity, you'd be singing a different tune. As I suspected, the original link left some key details out. I have all kinds of problems with the concept of a memorial service being thought-policed, but my original assumption was true. The first article left out facts to send people like our pointy.-earred theocratic friend into a feeding frenzy, and it clearly worked.
Of course. Anything to fit the persecution complex some people have. For some it's take offense from everything and they're snowflakes. For others it's "We're being persecuted". Gee, I wonder how it'd play to people if a Presidential candidate mentioned the word 'god' or mentioned he was a member of a church.
Quote:He had been previously banned from the base. Therefore, he was trespassing, and was removed. If he'd been praising a different deity, you'd be singing a different tune. As I suspected, the original link left some key details out. I have all kinds of problems with the concept of a memorial service being thought-policed, but my original assumption was true. The first article left out facts to send people like our pointy.-earred theocratic friend into a feeding frenzy, and it clearly worked.
If he had been previously banned from the base, how was he there to begin with? Were the democrats providing security at the gate?
Quote:If he had been previously banned from the base, how was he there to begin with? Were the democrats providing security at the gate?
Honestly, I think the whole situation is BS and a bit scary. Just pointing out yellow journalism where I see it.