I thought I'd share a few unconventional thoughts on the latest McGee debacle.  First of all, as if it has to be said, what McGee said on the radio was disgusting, insulting, inflamatory, and hurtful.  Of course, all those words don't seem to have the right impact either, but I'm having a hard time finding others that strike the right note.  WNOV has now pulled McGee of the air indefinitely.  A large part of me is very happy over this result.  This is how it should work.  Fred thought it was a good idea to contact the FCC.  I couldn't disagree more.  The FCC has a government body is extremely undemocratic.  It's purpose is to stifle innovation, and encourage censorship.  Neither of these are things that the government has any business doing.  It was up to the owner of WNOV to make this call, and he made it.

However, part of me is also disapointed that McGee is off the air.  There are a couple reasons for this.  One of them is that, whether we like it or not, these awful thoughts exist.  They spread through communities, and people share them in secret.  They fester and grow like a disease in the darkness.  By allowing McGee a microphone to express himself, it brings that disease into the light of day, where that thought and awfulness can be countered.  John McAdams mentioned this at the end of the now famous audio:

It is clear that any effective response to the outrageous behavior of McGee and his son, Michael McGee, Jr. will have to come from within the black community. As the recent recall attempt against McGee, Jr. shows, many in the Milwaukee black community are quite happy to thumb their noses at what white folks think.

But it may be revealing that one of the callers to McGee's show, reacting to his comments yesterday, chastized him. A Christian, she took McGee (who claims to be a Christian) to task for his very un-Christian comments. Her name was Lois, she said that McGee's comments are "totally out of order and God is not pleased with it."

Did this woman give McGee pause, and afford him a chance to rethink his idea?  I highly doubt it.  But maybe she affected the views of some of his listeners.  I do know that if McGee never had a microphone, then Lois would never have had a chance to counter those awful thoughts either.  And even if McGee never said it on the air, there would have been people thinking it anyway.

One of the beauties of free speech in this country is that it allows people with awful ideas enough rope to hang themselves.  We all cheer and nod when ideas are presented we like, but it's just as important to hear the ones we hate.  We need to know they exist.  These ideas need to be countered, and the only way to do that is to hear those ideas.

And even though I am not trying to equate what McGee said to some of the far less awful things other people say, I worry about how easily a vocal minority is able to silence so many people who may slip up in saying something.  And while I'm not suggesting that McGee's statements were a "slip up", there are people who will use this as an example to take down people who say far less awful things.  Don't kid yourself.