Who Will Stand Up for Free Speech?

Here they go again. 

The big bullies on the block are trying to push around government officials because they don't like the way some people think.

After demanding a meeting with NCSU chancellor James Oblinger and unsuccessfully attempting to bully him into expelling four students who painted racist remarks regarding President-elect Barack Obama on NCSU in the aptly named "free expression" tunnel, the NAACP is now demanding meetings with Wake County District Attorney Colin Willoughby and UNC System President Erskine Bowles in order to address "the apparent lack of policy and aggressive action regarding hate crimes and acts on at least some of the 16 campuses in the system."

What part of the 1st Amendment regarding freedom of speech isn't clear to the NAACP?  Do they not get the irony of the fact they are trying to regulate what people say or do in a "free expression" tunnel? 

While we all agree that the racist graffiti was abhorrent and we wish racism didn't exist, we cannot overlook the fact that as despicable the thoughts and actions of these kids, they have every right to do so and the US Constitution guarantees them such a right.  Those who protest that certain types of speech can’t be allowed should think carefully about where that argument can lead a society. We fought a long, cold war against a regime that tried to completely control the thoughts and speech of its and other country’s citizens. 

The United States just elected a black man as its President and it is ready to put racial divides aside and move forward as a society.  Maybe it is time the NAACP takes a good hard look at itself and see that what it is doing in attempting to fan the flames of racial “injustice” is actually doing more harm than good.  Did the NAACP ever stop to think that all it is doing by reacting to these idiots is giving them more publicity?  Give North Carolinians the benefit of the doubt that we are smart enough to know to ignore racist speech without attempting to regulate the thought of people who say things you don't like.