The Leader

It’s no surprise for a liberal to be defending a person’s First Amendment rights.  However, this person is not a minority, homosexual or a woman. Robert Henderson recently lost his job as a Nebraska state trooper because of his private beliefs. Last February, Henderson admitted to posting on the website of the White Knights, a white supremacist organization, and also acknowledged his membership in the Ku Klux Klan. A month later, Henderson was unemployed.

An 18-year veteran, Henderson appealed the decision and an arbitrator ruled that he was legally entitled to reinstatement. Defending his opinion, Paul Caffera cited the “snail’s pace” of the state patrol’s investigation as proof they didn’t consider his beliefs to hinder his performance. Though Caffera admitted being disgusted that a member of law enforcement would seek out such organizations, he found that the state patrol had failed to adequately defend their decision to fire Henderson based on his off-duty activities.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning filed an appeal to the decision and argued that the state has a right to preserve the integrity of its own police force, which he claimed would be destroyed by a racist like Bob Henderson. Granted, what Henderson believes is complete bigotry, but just as a high IQ is not a prerequisite for the presidency, a person’s private beliefs can’t legally be held against them in the workplace. If Henderson had lost his job because he believed in Jesus, everyone would be up in arms, but in this case, no one cares about his rights simply because they don’t share his beliefs.

If Henderson had acted on his beliefs during nearly twenty years on the job, by all means fire the man, but he hasn’t. A deputy who worked with him for ten years prior to his termination said he never saw any evidence of racism from Henderson. It’s really all in the wording. Should a man be fired for his own personal beliefs? No. Should a member of the KKK be allowed on the police force? Logically you can’t say no to both, though you might want to.

Freedom is a double-edged sword. Open-minded individuals get to say and believe what they want, but unfortunately so does the Jesus freak on the corner. As Thomas Jefferson said, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” It takes as much work and dedication to achieve as it does to maintain, because it is indeed a slippery slope. Do the people of Nebraska really want some bigot from the KKK walking around with a gun? Would I trust him to protect me? No, of course not. But his rights are being violated, and his rights are our rights.

If we don’t stand up for his rights, we risk losing our own. First we sack the white supremacist for his unpopular beliefs, then we fire Mr. He’s-gay-but-nobody-really-likes-him, then it’s Mr. I-don’t-really-mind-him-but-so-and-so-does-so-what-the-heck, and then it’s you or me. We don’t know why we got fired and it’s probably illegal, but no one cares anymore and the time to speak up is long gone. It seems that the term “everyone” is a hard concept for the American population.

The Constitution gives freedom of speech to everyone. After awhile America realized that this included those with a different skin tone, then a few years later we decided that it meant women too. It’s about time America put on some grown-up pants and realized that everyone even means people we don’t agree with.

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