Southern Heritage: It's a matter of Free Speech | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This letter to Governor McCrory, by BCN mainstay Diane Rufino, is just another example of Mrs. Rufino eloquently speaking on an issue that concerns the many liberty minded North Carolinians, who will forever endeavor to adjust the mechanism of self government until it better speaks and works for all our citizen. BCN is proud to have liberty advocate Diane Rufino on our hard working team.

I Took a STAND AGAINST CENSORSHIP. If government can censor one type of speech; it can censor any type of speech. (I'm talking about our state governments right now).

Regarding specialty license plates bearing the Confederate flag, I sent this letter off to Governor McCrory yesterday:

    Governor McCrory,

    As a long-time citizen of North Carolina and now a disillusioned member of the Republican Party, I urge you NOT to take any action concerning specialty license plates displaying the Confederate flag. The flag is a symbol of southern heritage that not only urged the original colonies to declare its separation from Great Britain, urged the Continental Congress to officially declare independence, and provided more than amply for the newly-formed Union, but also was the only part of the country that remained firmly loyal to the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the notion of constitutional governance. True, the flag at issue is the flag flown during the Civil War, but the heritage it embraces is still the same. North Carolina sacrificed more young men in the Civil War than any other confederate state and they were proud to stand up to federal tyranny. As you probably know, NC didn't join the Confederacy right away; in fact, it didn't plan on seceding from the Union. But when Lincoln demanded our state to send thousands of troops to invade and fight its neighbors, it knew the federal government had betrayed the core values outlined in the Declaration. Your planned act of censorship will only serve to put you in the same company as Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. A country that truly values its freedom doesn't have leaders that pursue a course of action as the one you wish to pursue. Frankly, its shameful.

    I am sure you are aware of the speech and expression implications in embracing the flag -- any flag, including the one as universally revered as the US flag, our "Stars and Stripes." When a Texas man, Gregory Lee Johnson burned a US flag in protest of President Reagan's policies, he was tried and convicted under a state statute which banned flag burning. The Supreme Court heard the appeal and reversed his conviction on First Amendment grounds (as applied through the incorporation doctrine of the 14th Amendment). The high court held that Johnson's burning of the flag was protected expression under the First Amendment. The Court found that Johnson's actions fell into the category of expressive conduct, and most importantly, was political in nature. Political speech and expression is considered the most important and protected speech in a free society. The fact that an audience happens to take offense to certain conduct (expression) or to a certain "message" does NOT justify prohibition of that speech or expression. The Court also held that state officials did NOT have the authority to designate the symbols to be used to communicate only limited types of messages. The decision read: "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may NOT prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable." 99.9% of Americans might view the American flag as a symbol of freedom and patriotism and only 0.1% may view it for something other. But that 0.1% has a right to use that flag in a matter that conveys the message intended.

    Again, I urge you to please leave the issue alone and please show a backbone in recognition of North Carolina's heritage at that tense moment in our nation's history. While the issue of slavery was dividing our nation, the bigger issue of discriminating tariffs and the acceptable scope of government were the ones that instigated the secession movement, thus leading to the Confederate flag.

    Also, please veto the "watered-down" Voter ID bill that has been sent to your desk. The bill is a joke and is nothing more than a feel-good piece of legislation that apparently makes no one feel good. The Civitas Institute pegged it correctly. "The provisional ballot addition 'guts' the ID rule. It demolishes it. There's no voter ID in North Carolina. It's over." The people of North Carolina who worked their butts off to get out the vote and helped to elect a historic Republican majority in state government did so for essentially a few reasons. One of the reasons was to enact a meaningful Voter ID law to infuse some sense of integrity into our election process. The watered down version essentially takes us back to square one. The good and honest citizens of North Carolina DEMAND honest elections and the piece of mind knowing that the ideal of "One Person, One Vote" is of utmost importance in this state.

    Thank you, and may God guide over you as you try to do what is right and what is fair (to everyone and not just to a minority group).

    Sincerely,

    Diane Rufino

       Greenville, NC

        Attorney, and also High School Science Teacher, Math Teacher

    Publisher's note: Diane Rufino is in the process of becoming co-publisher of Symbiotic Publishing Company's newest County NOW, Pitt County NOW, with our humble request that you will join us there, as Diane takes this fledgling site, with its leading edge technology, and well endows it with her estimable influence.

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