This is sad.
We last heard anything about Justin Carter two weeks ago, when he finally was released from prison after an anonymous donor covered his absurd $500,000 bail amount. Since then, nothing has changed. He’s still charged with making terrorist threats based on an obvious joke he put on Facebook. He still represents the apotheosis of the fanatic fear of guns and violence against schools in the wake of the post-Sandy Hook hysteria, cynically fed by Democrats, anti-gun zealots and the media. Carter’s plight still shows the continuing erosion of First Amendment rights in the fearful and paranoid culture nurtured by the Obama administration and turned into an offense to liberty by its natural partner, the abuse of government power. It’s just that nobody is paying attention.
The news media, which should have an interest in protecting the same amendment that (theoretically, these days) protects them, gave some fleeting coverage to the story but quickly dropped it in favor of gushing over infant foreign monarchs, finding ways to vilify George Zimmerman and making bad Weiner puns. The blogosohere has been pretty silent too, with some notable exceptions.
I am generally opposed to pointless demonstrations. My pathetic gesture to try to generate some fight in this somnolent nation as its common sense, ethical priorities and sense of justice drains away was never a threat to catch on, and didn’t. Essentially, few understand what is so wrong about what Texas is doing to Carter, and fewer still care enough to protest it. That is sad, and it also is frightening.
Nonetheless, those of us who do care should try to show it, and this was the best that I (or anyone else) could come up with. So challenge the fearful, the bullies, the Constitutionally ignorant, the arrogant abusers of power “if it will save just one child,” and post the harmless, facetious and sarcastic statement that young Justin Carter posted for a friend, never realizing that America, or at least the part of it where he, and quite possibly you, live, doesn’t really believe in free speech anymore. Post it on your blog, on Facebook, on Twitter. Let’s see if they come for all of us, however many it is. And let’s see how many people care anymore.
August 1 Is “Quote Justin Carter On Social Media Day.”
And Justin’s words, which got him arrested, imprisoned, and soon will have him being tried for his freedom, were these:
“Oh yeah, I’m real messed up in the head. I think Ima shoot up a kindergarten and watch the blood of the innocent rain down and eat the beating heart of one of them.” lol. jk.”
Ethics Alarms 
Posted to my Facebook.
Posted reminders on FB and Twitter. Now posting the quote itself.
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rlmcv5
https://www.facebook.com/events/214598412024862/
My hero.
Thanks, Jeff.
Posted reminders on FB and Twitter. Now posting the quote itself.
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rlmcv5
https://www.facebook.com/events/214598412024862/
Added an old self portrait to the quote for a little extra punch.
Thanks, Jeff.
Tweeted out
Thanks, JJ.
Twitter complete. Facebook will have to be this afternoon.
Facebook complete.
I’ve no more social media to use.
Facebook has been posted. I will post again tonight.
Thanks, Josh.
Facebooked as both self and Curmie. Twitter later.
Does it count if I offered context/commentary so I don’t end up in jail? I got a family, man. (Well, a wife and two dogs, but they’d miss me.)
To clarify, gave the full quote with commentary below it.
It counts.
Thanks.
“He still represents the apotheosis of the fanatic fear of guns and violence against schools in the wake of the post-Sandy Hook hysteria, cynically fed by Democrats, anti-gun zealots and the media.”
It’s both ridiculous and tragic that this young man is being forced to endure this witch hunt. However, it’s worth noting that this isn’t happening in some “anti-gun zealot” zone… it’s happening in *Texas*. Which happens to have a *Republican* Attorney General… and that the Comal County District Attorney prosecuting this case is also a *Republican*.
Why is that worth noting? Texas is no monolithic state. The rational for the arrest is fear of Sandy Hook style attacks. Fear of Sandy Hook-style attacks has been seeded, and nurtured, and manipulated in the US by everyone from Jim Carrey to Peirs Morgan to senator Feinstein to Barack Obama. Texas, last I looked, gets the same news networks and the same communications as the rest of the country. The anti-gun hysteria has been overwhelmingly fed by Democrats, and the current incursions against First Amendment rights by the Federal government are under a Democratic Administration. Go ahead—blame Bush for this too. After all, he LIVES in Texas.
Anything to duck accountability. Pathetic.
Can’t wait to see what, if any, comments I get on my Facebook posting. BTW, would an online petition help, do you think? They seem to work for other things…just a thought.
When one of my grandsons was in middle school, he and his buddies liked to make movies. They were discussing a plot and decided to start shooting when a neighbor overheard the “s” word and called the police. Several squads arrived to find a bunch of 10-year-olds having fun – which obviously didn’t last long, but it could have been worse.
Jack in fact linked to an online petition started by Justin Carter’s mom: http://www.change.org/petitions/release-my-son-justin-carter-being-prosecuted-for-a-facebook-comment
Thanks. Signed.
Thanks Rick.
I supported this in the way that I was able, of making a donation to the Justin Carter fund. Mr. Marshall, thank you, and your fellow bloggers for making a stand in defense of young Justin Carter.
Facebooked, but alas seems to have failed to raise comment. I think most of my friends either already agree or know that when I start posting things like this it’s not a good idea to try to argue…