By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
I’m back! Not that I really went anywhere to begin with.
Okay, so after taking a week away from the column due to some personal business I had to attend to (everything is great, I promise), I have returned with your weekly does of what’s right and what’s wrong and how not to get things twisted.
The joy of having an Internet-based media outlet is that you’re able to get things out to people in real time as it happens. That means they will see what you see, especially when you decide to do live streaming on a social media platform like Facebook or Instagram.
As the immigration crisis enveloped Del Rio, the concerns that more and more people would arrive in our community to bring their own opinions on the matter began to grow. Now I used that phrase “concerns” because that’s what they were. When it comes to opinions, we all want to share them, but being tolerant of them is a whole other story.
Such was the case with the visit of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Sharpton is a polarizing figure; that is for sure. I don’t agree with what he has to say, but he does have the right to be heard. And much like the people who lined up to protect his arrival in our city, Sharpton should have been given the opportunity to speak when he held his impromptu “press conference” during his visit to our town two weeks ago. Allowing him to speak doesn’t mean agreeing to the message. If I let you in my home, that doesn’t mean I will agree to you peeing on my carpet. One is not an agreement of the other.
However, there were voices that refused to let Sharpton speak and did so by speaking over him, disrupting the press conference via trolling. They themselves have no interest in the messages they delivered no in taking any action in support of them. They just wanted to suppress someone trying to speak publicly.
The video of the event has been viewed on the 830 Times Facebook page more than 82,000 times, making it one of the most popular videos on our page. And it shows just how difficult it is for us, as a society, to coexist when different views converge.
I heard a legislator today talk about how President Joe Biden has divided this country with his legislation or his inaction on items that are affecting Americans. With all due respect, sir, we’ve been a divided nation for much longer than just this year. Ask indigenous people, people of color, women, LGBTQ+ or any other marginalized people that have been looked down upon for centuries and ask them if we’ve been united.
Now we have people up in arms that the US Department of Justice is being called on to investigate threats being made against school board members, administrators and teachers by parents in regards to policies they don’t agree with. The spin on the whole matter is that these investigations will limit people’s free speech and right to assemble.
Uh, no. Sorry. That’s not what will happen. And if you can’t present your side of a discussion without resorting to threats, direct or veiled, then maybe you should reconsider your arguments as a whole.
The first amendment outlines both freedom of speech and the right to assemble. See, the folks who wrote and supported that document kind of knew what we, the public, were capable of and wanted to make sure our voices were heard. However, it doesn’t say you can physically intimidate or verbally threaten people who don’t agree with you.
And most school boards already set rules regarding length of public comments and topics that can be discussed. Other rules may be set in place, like how many people can speak on the same topic with the same message due to time constraints. School boards can even choose to not have public comment sections during their meetings.
I reached out to our local public school district to see if there had been any kind of threats against our local board members of school district employees within the last 60 days and the response was simple, “There have been no objections.”
That’s good to hear. If anything, it means we are smarter and more level headed than a lot of places. We aren’t perfect, but it’s a start.
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Brian Argabright has been a journalist for more than 25 years. An award-winning writer and photographer, he has covered sports, features and much more during his career. Contact him at drnhsports@gmail.com
