> Kelley
Well, free speech does have something to do with it, but it's not the only aspect. For the record, this is what I've said about the Lerner mess:
"A public rally is different. Now of course organizers can invite or not invite whom they wish to speak, but the ground's a little shakier here."
"But I find it interesting that an "public" antiwar rally has taken on private features, i.e., those with the mikes will decide who speaks, based on ideological fitness. Like the corp media, you and your allies are fashioning the discussion to serve a narrow end. Your right, of course (though if such a thing were done to your little sect, I highly doubt you would keep quiet about it)."
"And Lerner, like him or not, is a public antiwar figure well-known in the Bay Area. You aren't forced to invite him to speak, but to exclude him based on some wimpy "he criticized us" excuse is pretty sad and quite transparent. And again, if the three other rally sponsors decided, on strictly ideological grounds, to exclude anyone from ANSWER/IAC/WWP, I guarantee that you and your little red scouts would raise hell, and rightly so."
I concede the organizers' right to invite whom they like, but insist that there's more going on than that.
DP