The Rights of Cartoons

Who Deserves a ‘Safe Space’?

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper is in hot water with a good portion of their readers for doing what newspapers do.

Publishing.

On June 25th, two west Texas newspapers, The Avalanche-Journal and the Amarillo Globe News published a political cartoon in their editorial sections that is causing a relative uproar of reaction from supporters of law enforcement in West Texas.

The outcry is understandable, when you consider that Texas, and the panhandle in particular, is a largely conservative part of the country and a pillar of modern conservatism is utmost respect for law enforcement but it becomes palpably ironic in the light of events just 3 short years ago.

In 2015, in response to cartoonists in Europe being attacked and killed by extreme Islamist terrorists for their depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, a freedom of speech advocacy group known as The American Freedom Defense Initiative kicked off the “First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and contest” in Garland, Texas; and as protest events are want to do, it elicited a passionate response from the opposition.

A troll persona run by The Islamic State called for aggression against the event online that resulted in two gunmen with semi-automatic rifles and handguns attacking and wounding a security officer at the contest, before being killed by Garland police officers. This attack is the first time ISIS took credit for a terrorist act on American soil, and though serious tragedy was avoided, it gave more hateful conservatives, claiming to be “free speech” advocates, justification to incite protests against American Muslims across the country.

With the aftermath of this event, the purpose of the contest became less about the rights of cartoonists to depict who they wish without fear of reprisal, and more about finding acquittal for bigotry against another group of Americans who’s only connection to the criminals is a shared religion.

If that’s our basis for discrimination, I have some old news for you. A 2011 study by prison chaplains put 50% of incarcerated Americans as claiming Protestant Christianity. If that sounds like a generalization, it’s because it is.
We know not…

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