Somebody's Gotta Say It - Neal Boortz
No matter what your political stance, Neal Boortz is bound to offend you in some way. He recognizes this and comes out full throttle. He also readily admits that this makes for a more entertaining conversation: "If two people agree on everything, one of them isn't necessary" (37). For the most part, Neal's rantings reflect his Libertarianism. He argues for limited government and a greater emphasis on human responsibility and the importance of the individual. He demonstrates how our ever-expanding government controls our lives more than we realize - e.g., a big part of our lives goes to paying taxes, public schools are really government schools, etc. Sadly, we serve the government more than we realize. This seems to be way off the mark of the founding fathers idea of consent of the governed, and government existing to protect constitutional rights. Because Neal favors true freedom, he is not opposed to flag-burning, he is for homosexual rights and homosexual marriage, he thinks that prayer in schools and mandating the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are violations of the First Amendment. (I, for one, have always had a problem pledging my allegiance to the State - no matter how good or bad its rule may be.) Although he is against the phrase "under God" Boortz supports the teaching of comparative religion in public schools. In this, I think he is consistent. Children should be "given an honest and unbiased lecture on the fundamental differences between Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and a few other major religions before they start developing their own prejudices" (61). But sadly, as Neal notes, it is Christians who would scream loudest about this kind of program, because what many want is the freedom of Christianity, not true freedom of religion. Neal is at his best when he demonstrates how many Americans want government to save them from bearing the responsibility of their own decisions and actions. For example, "Not only are many Americans unequipped to live in a free society, they actually don't want to live in a free society. The so-called 'love of freedom' we hear about in our patriotic songs and stories is a myth. Americans don't really want to be free. They have enthusiastically abandoned their sovereignty to the lure of the welfare state. They have no working concept of the responsibilities of individuals who would live free of government tyranny or mob rule. Their ignorance renders them incapable of coping with the responsibilities of liberty" (219). Kind of puts a damper on the Fourth of July!