[Vision2020] Disturbing trends

[Tom Hansen]

Mr. Lohrman -

McCarthyism had more to do with paranoia than it did free speech.  In the
early 1950s the Soviet Union had just developed the bomb.  Prior to that
American considered the SOviet Union to be almost a backward country (third
world almost).

Americans were thinking:

1)  How could such a backward country develop an atomic bomb?

2)  There must be some "traitors" among us that gave them the technology to
devlop the bomb.

Enter Senator Joe McCarthy.  What better way to get headlines as a "true"
American than to divulge names of local Communists and Communist
sympathizers.  If anybody said or did anything that could be interpreted to
be "un-American" in any way was labeled a Communist or Communist
sympathizer.  This "interpretation" was not a result of what was considered
to "violations" of free speech, but a result of mass paranoia, much like the
internment of Japanese-Americans at the beginning of WW2.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-admin@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-admin@moscow.com]On
> Behalf Of Bob Hoffmann
> Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 10:37 AM
> To: vision2020@moscow.com
> Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Disturbing trends
>
>
> At 10:06 AM 4/16/2003 -0700, Tim Lohrmann wrote:
> >Joe,
> >    Exactly. The truth is that everyone, especially those in the public
> > spotlight, have always "paid a price" for what they say and do.
> >    That's not censorship. The government isn't involved at all.
>
> Censorship doesn't always include the government.  This is not as
> simple as
> an issue of boycotting someone because of a bumper sticker.  Remember the
> blacklisting of actors in the 1950's?  Witch hunts, are you now
> or have you
> ever been a member of the Communist Party, have you ever met a Communist,
> do you wear red underpants?  Destroyed careers, destroyed families, and,
> let's not forget, a totally oppressive atmosphere across the
> country.  This
> was just one small part of McCarthysim.  At a time when people
> are talking
> about renaming anything "French," boycotting the products of a number of
> countries, and punishing people in our country for their beliefs,
> this is a
> complex that needs to be examined in its broadest scope, not simply a
> matter of "so-and-so's show got cancelled."
>
> And while individuals are free to withhold their dollars from whatever
> business or product, institutions are not so free in our country.
>  Any one
> of us can decide that we don't like "a certain ethnic group" so we won't
> patronize their businesses.  When our institutions start
> discriminating on
> the basis of one's political views, how is that much different from
> discriminating on the basis of race, religion, gender, etc.?  Again, as
> individuals, we have some latitude to do so.  Institutions have less
> "freedom" in this matter.  Decades of civil rights activism have
> made it so.
>
> Food for thought....
>
> Bob Hoffmann
> 820 S. Logan St.
> Moscow, ID  83843
>
> Tel: 208 883-0642
>
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