I just got "fired"

Actually, not fired, since I don't actually work for the Times Herald, I'm just a contributing columnist. So officially I was told that the Herald wouldn't be running my columns anymore. Upper management at the Herald is getting too much "blow back" from my column today. They've been getting too much blow back since the inauguration, I guess, but today's column was the final straw.

Apparently, my column on cop killers today was too controversial--deemed by some angry callers to be "racist". Judge for yourself; here's the passage in question:

So let’s talk about what kind of culture breeds a cop killer.

Could it be a culture of criminal justice that is more about catch and release than punishment or rehabilitation; a culture that offers rewards for crimes that far outweigh the risks or the consequences?

Could it be a culture that holds up the admitted and unrepentant cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal as a “political prisoner,” a poster boy against the death penalty and a fitting commencement speaker to lecture our nation’s youth?

Could it be a culture of “stop snitching” perpetuated by the rap and hip-hop community and characterized by ostentatious displays of wealth? A culture that glorifies violence against cops and women in heavy rotation on-air and whose message is not only condoned but praised and awarded as “art”?

Could it be a culture that perpetuates victimhood and oppression as a way of life?

A culture whose spiritual leaders include race-baiters like Reverends Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Jeremiah Wright?

And hasn’t that culture of victim and oppressor just been validated on a national scale by the election of the first true product of that culture, Barack Obama?

Could it be a culture in which the media are able to paint all of law enforcement with the broad brush of corruption due to the actions of a few?

A culture of moral relativism that then uses that characterization to make excuses for the hostility, lawlessness and violence of the culture from whence the killers came?

Is this the “conservative culture” that breeds cop killers, or is this a very sour “mother’s milk” of another, more liberal kind?

Every attack on a cop is an attack on our way of life, our civilization and our liberty, regardless of the perpetrator’s political beliefs.

Every attack on a cop is an attack on us all.

It was most likely the victim/oppressor passage--you know, the one where I invoke Obama's name. That was "racist". It is apparently ok for the federal government to classify pro-life, pro-gun conservatives as terrorists. Hell, it's even ok for people like Reg Henry paint us all promoting cop killers. But suggest that Obama comes from and promotes a culture of victim and oppressor? That's racist. Silence her!

It makes me sad for our country because I'm just a tiny little voice. I'm small beans in the grand scheme of things; it's relatively easy to cut off my column since I'm just a freelancer anyway. And hell, the Herald is free to print or not print whatever they want--it shouldn't matter that their online poll had me as the Herald's favorite of 4 columnists by an overwhelming mandate of 49% of the vote. It shouldn't matter that my columns invoked passionate responses --both pro and con. So if it were a matter of the quality of my columns, I wouldn't be so troubled. But it's not the quality. It's the content. And that, my friends, is nothing short of chilling.

And this is just the beginning. If they can silence me, they can silence anyone.

Enjoy my last column here, while you can. I'll still be blogging here and at the 'Cooler -- until they yank that away, too. And don't think that they won't try.

Anyone out there still think we have a free press?

Cross posted at PAWatercooler