Oh my God, I had a whole post typed out and Blogger crashed and deleted it without saving a draft.

I forgot most of what I wrote so I have to start over.

I notice some of you talking about Laura Slessinger and her use of the N- Bomb recently. I saw some of the fall-out from that in the news too. And it made me think about what gets said to a lot of you sometimes.

We see a lot of MSICR fans saying that MSICR have the first amendment right to use whatever language they want and we have no right to stop them. I think once even Lyn-Z made a comment about "Thank God for the first amendment" when talking about her band's lyrics.

But I have always thought, no one is TRYING to take away their right to use hate speech. We have the right to our opinion too when it comes to lyrics that are racist, homophobic and misogynist.

This article about Laura Slessinger and the first amendment said a lot of what needs to be said here too.

These are the parts I wanted to quote.

• The First Amendment protects us from the government, and not from other Americans who disagree with what we have to say. “Congress shall make no law” — the first five words of the First Amendment — say it all: No government body can limit our rights to speak out. In this case, there’s no government action, just public outrage and pressure.

• Boycotts are also protected by the First Amendment. Dr. Laura complains about being “bullied” by those who might pressure her radio affiliates or advertisers, but boycotts are a time-honored use of the First Amendment to address perceived wrongs and have played a role in virtually every social movement in American history.

But the whole article is really good.

MSICR are allowed to use hate speech in their lyrics. MSICR fans are allowed to listen to those lyrics and interpret them any way they want. They can think they are about something else, if they want to. You interpret things however it makes sense to you.

YOU are also allowed to hate those lyrics, take them at face value (which the bands themselves always say), and to boycott them if you want..... forever if that's what you want.

There will always be arguments as long as there are lyrics, tweets, concerts and interviews with that kind of speech. There will be disagreements no matter what. But disagreeing is NOT the same thing as squashing someone else's rights.

I really thought that article said it better than I could have.