Hey, Patriotic Front, I dare you you to come out into the light of day and defend your hateful message

BY ROD MILLER

Muscles will atrophy, shrink and weaken if not exercised. They must be used, or they’ll be incapable of doing the job they were intended to do. 

The same rule

Posters recently found on Cheyenne light posts.

applies to our constitutional right of freedom of speech. Free thought, free exchange of ideas and free speech must be continually exercised, or those rights will atrophy. They won’t be strong enough to do the work necessary.

Recently, a few posters advertising The Patriot Front, a white nationalist group, were put up in the dead of night in Cheyenne. Gov. Mark Gordon publicly voiced his displeasure at this act, quoting the Wyoming Constitution’s clear language that “all members of the human race are equal.” Good for the Gov!

I happen to agree with the governor about the substance of the Patriot Front’s message. (Do your own research on this organization and draw your own conclusions about them.) What I find more offensive than the Patriot Front’s doctrine are its tactics – anonymity and sashaying out in the dead of night to put up a few posters and then skulking back to Mom’s basement before anyone sees you.

Make no mistake, the Patriot Front is availing itself of its right to free speech, and that should not be prevented. The First Amendment guarantees anyone the right to express their political views.  

But to describe what the Patriot Front did, or any other group that follows the same tactic, as “exercising” free speech is laughable. Exercise means work. It means investing some effort.  

Exercising free speech means a lot more than slapping up some posters and calling it good. What the Patriot Front did is more akin to video-gaming democracy on 4Chan. This goes for any organization that thinks decorating a few power poles has anything to do with free speech.

I’d like to offer whatever Patriot Front warrior who put up the posters a real opportunity to exercise freedom of speech in a valid manner. Get in touch with me, and I’ll arrange a public debate between us, you defending your narrow white doctrine and me defending the Wyoming Constitution.

We’ll get a room at the library or some place, have a moderator and conduct a structured debate in the full glare of public scrutiny. We’ll invite the media to attend, and you’ll have a much bigger forum to express yourself than a few power poles.

Do you believe in your message enough to get it out there in the sunlight where everyone can see it?

Are you willing to subject your political thought to the light of day, and defend your position in front of your neighbors against someone with an opposing position?  Are you willing to really exercise your constitutional right of freedom of speech? 

Or is Mom’s basement too warm and comfy? And are your secret Internet friends too supporting for you to venture out except in the dead of night to poster the town?

If you, dear Poster Boy or Girl, have the courage and strength of conviction necessary to call yourself a true Patriot and not merely a Front, then please contact me through this blog and we’ll set the wheels in motion.  

Who knows? You might enjoy a little real exercise for a change.

Rod Miller is a citizen, father and grandfather and a proud former Rawlins Outlaw living in Cheyenne.