BeardedBruce said, in part:


Are you saying that YOU would have been ok with pro-Bush protesters complaining about a sign on private property during the Bush administration???

You clearly don't understand what "freedom of speech" means, BB. It has to do with government action. ("Government" here meaning all the way from local to national, perhaps even international.)

You (or the bar owner) have the freedom from government control to put up such a poster/mural. The government (any government) does not have the right under our Constitution to punish you for it, nor to take it down.

This assumes, of course, no "fire in a crowded theater" content, no "Let's kill ______ " content.

BUT anyone else has the freedom of speech to be highly critical of the action of putting it up, or of the poster itself. Whether any individual would have been OK with a similar anti-Bush poster is no exception to this.

In direct application to the incident cited, it does not, to me, appear racist on its face. What viewers of various backgrounds may bring to it from their own mindsets is another matter, and they have that freedom. And I have the freedom to disagree.   

Dave Oesterreich