Indeed do many things come to pass

[redbird]

Equal access to housing and employment are basic rights, not special rights.

"Civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, et cetera, is not a liberal or conservative value," Falwell went on to say. "It’s an American value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on."

Yes, that Falwell.

Equal rights are, historically and currently, a liberal value--but if we can get conservatives on board by pointing out that the liberal program is thoroughly American, that's fine with me.

Comments

[penngwyn.livejournal.com]

There's a particular rhetorical meme that I've encountered half a dozen times in the last fifteen years from "religious conservatives".

The speech always begins by getting the audience to agree that no group should be entitled to "special rights". Upstanding, egalitarian listeners applaud that without reservation.

Over the course of 20-30 minutes, the speaker carries that unanimity along a slippery slope, which concludes with an apparent concensus that members of "Group X" -- homosexuals, feminists, immigrants, addicts, whomever -- MUST be denied basic, ordinary rights that the audience takes for granted for themselves.

So my inclination to applaud Falwell's "seeing the light" is tempered by a concern that he MAY have been quoted out of a larger and less salutory context.

[redbird]

If I read the article right, while he avoids defining "special rights," he explicitly states that protection from discrimination in housing and discrimination is not a special right, those are civil rights that should be protected.