Open letter to the mayor of Auburn MI

Dear Mr. Mayor,

I am a resident of ******* MI and grew up in ******* MI, where I still spend winters. Please know that I love this area a great deal.

Unless you were misquoted (were you?) your statements to the media regarding the recent confederate flag episode at an unnamed Auburn MI high school seemed confusing and somewhat contradictory; therefore, I'm guessing what you were actually trying to say might have been that hate speech is --- while vile and rank and aptly named --- protected speech per SCOTUS. I would only ask that you state this more clearly in future, lest you send the wrong message to both sides of this contentious issue. Please allow me to explain.

The Rawstory article I read --- and, again, assuming you were not misquoted by whomever claims to have quoted you --- mentions that you, "...aren’t sure whether the flag demonstrations are racially motivated." 

 "Not sure?" Really? 

What might their motivations have been? Simply out exercising their right to free expression? Airing out their musty flags after a long winter's hibernation in storage? Doing their part for the local economy by burning gasoline they bought in Auburn?

Yes indeed, these confederate-flag wavers are exercising First Amendment rights; waving a racist symbol at people (for whom it is, in fact, nothing but a racist symbol) is protected free speech. In other words, the flag wavers were just doing something anyone can do, legally. But you might at least consider that doing a thing simply because you can do it is rarely, if ever, a sufficient rationale for the doing of that thing. And when you said "they're doing their legal constitutional duty," I'm almost certain you didn't mean exactly this and that you'd like to amend it to "exercising their constitutional rights," because no one has a "constitutional duty" to be hateful, rude, racist, and mean-spirited. But they do have a constitutional right to actually be all these things and to prove it openly and publicly.

Hooray for our freedoms!

I'll leave you with a thought experiment: imagine someone drove around your church --- off private property, of course --- waving flags that said, "Christians are delusional!" or "Jesus Christ is a fictional character!" or that showed upside-down crucifixes. How would you feel? Would you think the flag wavers to be doing their "constitutional duty?" Would you say you weren't sure if their flag demonstration was religiously motivated? Or would you simply smile and say, "Look at those darn freedom-loving guys exercising their constitutional right to freedom of expression?"

I'm pretty sure how you would feel is mighty close to if not exactly how those African-American kids felt the other day having the plainest, most obvious symbol of a long-defunct, slavery promoting, and unarguably racist and illegal shadow government flown in their faces, being shouted at, and being made to feel the hatred and contempt of hateful and contemptible "demonstrators."

I see that your term ends in November of this year. I wish you good luck with the remainder of your term, sir.

Sincerely and respectfully,
Open Mike

Ed. Note: I sent this to the mayor via the email address listed at the Auburn MI webpage.