Cowardly Abuse of Freedom

By KENNETH BLACKWELL
April 17, 2008

"Beyond Obama's Beauty," my February 14 column in this paper, was hijacked, altered, and circulated on the Internet via e-mail. I have never had so many people respond to one of my pieces, albeit an altered version of my piece. I have had people from Europe and China e-mail me about my column.

While I am happy to know that volumes of people have read my work, the bad news is that the last few paragraphs were someone else's words and work. Equally disturbing were the factual errors in that hijacker's work.

In that column, I wrote how we were starting to learn about the real Barack Obama. He is a stridently partisan liberal, well outside the American mainstream. While he is well-spoken, and, to some, charismatic, he is not a unifying figure.

We have seen more evidence of this over the last 10 days. His claim that gun owners and people of faith cling to religion and Second Amendment freedoms out of bitterness is revealing. His words, and openly expressed views, provide further credibility to the assertions and conclusions I put forth in my column.

Perhaps the objective of the Internet hijacker of my column was to lessen the credibility of the column. Among other things, the hijacker writes that the Book of Revelation in the Bible says the Antichrist will be a man in his forties of Muslim descent. This is wrong — historically and theologically. Revelation was written around 95 A.D., while Islam was founded by Mohammed in 605 A.D., more than five centuries later. And the Bible never references the Antichrist's age.

Alternatively, perhaps the objective of the person who made these alterations was to further damage Barack Obama. That would be wooden-headed and wrong. Conspiracy thinking based on falsehoods and fabrications does nothing to advance a legitimate, informative debate. That sort of attack is misleading.

Mr. Obama is not the Antichrist. He is a smooth talking, amiable liberal with a radical agenda. That assertion is observable, measurable, and intellectually honest.

No one word better describes America than freedom. We are defined by liberty. But, we must be careful not to abuse it. One of my most cherished rights is free speech. And I don't intend to passively let a pirate of the Internet distort my commentary.

With freedom comes responsibility. When we exercise our right to speak, we should do so honestly, transparently, and prudently. We owe that to our readers and the integrity of the Internet.

It is inevitable that such hijacking, distortions, and abuses will happen on the Internet. It is just part of learning what it means to have this powerful new frontier available to us to speak and advance ideas. And as we do, we all share the duty to use it responsibly.

Though the Founders could never have envisioned the Internet, our responsible and honest use of such a powerful forum would make them proud of the nation they created.

Mr. Blackwell is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.