David McElroy

If you listen to most of the mainstream media, you’ll believe that a decision Tuesday by the U.S. Supreme Court has just destroyed the voting rights of black Americans. MSNBC’s headline says, “Supreme Court guts landmark civil rights law.” Reuters headlined its story by saying, “Supreme Court guts key part of landmark Voting Rights Act.” Salon’s headline said, “SCOTUS guts Voting Rights Act.”

It’s almost as though some members of the media got together with black politicians and others on the progressive left to decide that “gut” was the most emotional verb possible to express their disapproval of the Supreme Court ruling.

If you don’t know much about the law or the history involved, you might think the court said it was now legal for states to discriminate against minorities and take away their right to vote.

Nothing of the sort happened. The spin against the ruling is dishonest. The truth is that the decision is a win for fairness. Let’s look at the reason why.

Let’s assume that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a proper remedy for the problems that existed when the law was passed. Up until then, blacks and other minorities had been seriously cheated for many decades by racist white governments in more than a dozen states, most of them in the South.

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I was heartbroken to discover Tuesday morning that Sonny, my favorite cat, had died during the night. I have no idea what killed him, but I found him spread out in one of his favorite sleeping spots, so I assume he died in his sleep.

I’ve only had Sonny for a couple of years, but he had become my favorite of my current group of cats. He was the most friendly and loving of all the ones I have now — and one of the most loving and trusting I’ve ever known. He was constantly at my elbow and in my lap — always wanting my attention.

I never like to lose any of them, but to lose this one really, really hurts. Even though I only had him for about two years, it feels as though he’s been here forever, just because he had quickly played such a central role in my everyday life.

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Are free societies laying the foundation for their own destruction? I fear they are. In the name of tolerance, free societies are accepting behavior that will eventually make tolerance and freedom impossible if the trend continues.

I’m a strong advocate of tolerance for people in our society who don’t look like us. Many people today are eager to reject people with the wrong skin color or wrong religion. I wrote recently about why you’re simply a bigot if you hate Muslims in general — or if you hate members of any group just because of their color or religion.

Most Muslims I know are very much like me, but they simply have strongly different religious beliefs and cultural practices. Many others, though, have habits that are very similar to those of other westerners, maybe for good and maybe for bad. But there are some with beliefs and actions that make them unfit for free societies. Those are the ones I’m worried about — not because they’re Muslims, but because they reject the freedom of the rest of us to live with our own cultural and legal standards.

I don’t want anyone imposing his religious or moral codes on me, whether it’s radical Muslims or the members of the Westboro Baptist Church. I’m perfectly content to tolerate those people believing what they want to believe. I’m even content to tolerate them hating those of us who disagree with them.

What I’m not willing to tolerate — and what I don’t think any free society can tolerate — are those who take actions to prevent the rest of us from being free, simply because they’re offended by our beliefs or practices.

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