http://www.townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/ma20050726.shtml

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/ma20050727.shtml

Parts I and II

Mike S. Adams

July 27, 2005

1. If you want to be happy and successful, you must immediately disabuse yourself of the notion that there is no such thing as good and evil.

If, for some reason, this is difficult for you to do, take the time to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. If that still does not convince you, take the time to visit Auschwitz.

2. You must also immediately disabuse yourself of the notion that good and evil are simply relative terms. There are moral absolutes and they have absolutely nothing to do with your personal feelings and perceptions.

It should be noted that people who claim to believe in moral relativism are just lying in order to make themselves appear to be morally superior to others. Their actual belief in moral absolutism is revealed when, at some point, they openly proclaim that there are no absolutes. If everything is relative, the philosophy of moral relativism can’t be absolutely true.

3. Take some time every day to fine-tune your understanding of the difference between right and wrong.

Recently, a good friend of mine lost his mother to cancer. He later made a casual suggestion about the need for some sort of handbook, which could be used to sort out the difficult problems and answer the difficult questions one encounters in life.

Fortunately, such a handbook exists. It is called the Holy Bible.

No one can call himself educated if he has not read the Bible at least once. Even after several readings of the Bible some things will remain unclear. Some questions will remain unanswered. Nonetheless, upon every reading of the Bible, greater wisdom is gained. After all, life is a journey. It is not a destination.

By the same token, one should never go to a psychologist or any other counselor who is a self-proclaimed atheist or agnostic. I cannot think of a single important principle the field of psychology has established that wasn’t already established in the Sermon on the Mount.

4. Life will present you with plenty of encounters with good and evil. Just as you should never pass up an opportunity to promote good, you should never pass up an opportunity to combat evil.

One of my favorite verses of the Bible is James 4:17. It states that “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” That verse reminds us that we don’t have to actually do something to be morally culpable. In other words, there is such a thing as a sin of omission.

It can often be tough to step up and combat evil when one may be risking, for example, one’s job. We humans are so weak and frail that it is often tough to stand up for what is right even when the consequences are merely ostracism or momentary ridicule. In those times, the following verse (Hebrews 13:5) helps: “…For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Remember when you read that verse that, quite literally, nothing else in life matters.

In the past, I have been faced with some risky decisions that involved the prospect of taking on campus radicals – some have been communists, some have been feminists, all have been, in some way, morally decadent. But some of these morally bankrupt individuals also happened to have some degree of power over me and over my economic livelihood.

When, in the past, I have contemplated the prospect of cowering away from these situations, I have sometimes found strength by thinking about some old war veterans – some in my family, some friends – who risked or even gave their lives to preserve our nation and our freedom.

The next time you find yourself tempted to cower from something you know you should do, just imagine a roomful of old war veterans. Get in a quiet, dark room. Close your eyes, concentrate on their faces. Then just imagine walking up to one of them to have a face-to-face talk about what you are cowering from and why.

Once, I imagined myself walking up to my grandfather who was hit with grenade shrapnel in World War I and saying something like this: “Thanks for serving to protect my First Amendment Rights. I’ve been meaning to stand up to some campus feminists who are violating the constitutional rights of some students on campus. But, frankly, I’m afraid of feminists and what they might say about me.”

You might want to end this mental exercise before you picture one of those veterans punching you in the nose.

Just remember that Jesus didn’t die on the cross for you to run from what is right. And war heroes didn’t die on the battlefield for you to cower away while this country is destroyed.

5. Standing up against that which is wrong invariably means that you will have to take on a lot of angry people. If you cannot do it with a sense of humor, you are less likely to prevail.

Without question, liberals are the angriest people in America these days. If you respond to them with anger, you will allow them to conceal this fact while playing upon stereotypes of conservatives that are no longer accurate. In addition, you will not be able to influence people in the middle.

Now, you know a little more about my simple philosophy of life. In my next column, I plan to answer Dr. Phil’s favorite question: “How’s that working for you?”

To be continued…

It was almost midnight when I decided to make two difficult phone calls the next morning. The first would be to Patti. I would apologize for sending an email to her daughter that said the constitution protected her speech just as it had protected “bigoted, unintelligent, and immature speech for many years.”

Patti (a professor) and her husband (a former professor) both thought I had libeled their daughter (a student) by expressing that opinion in a private email. They were wrong about that. They also thought their daughter’s email (the one that prompted my response) blaming the attacks of 9/11 on the United States was fully protected by the U.S. Constitution. They were right about that.

The second phone call would be to the university attorney. After resisting for weeks, I decided to capitulate to Patti’s demand that I allow the university to examine all of the emails I sent that week in order to search for additional evidence of “libel” against her daughter. This would involve going into my email account as well as examining the university’s back-up tapes. It would also require reading some of my private email correspondence.

All of this came about because a leftist family thought that anti-American rhetoric was free speech while criticism of anti-American rhetoric was “libel.” And they were threatening to sue.

But before I got to the phone the next day, it rang and I answered. It was a friend of mine who was active in the local Republican Party. I told him about throwing in the towel despite my previous attempts to stop the forced examination of my email account. Even though the State Attorney General was involved and was resisting the efforts to forcibly read my emails (there were serious concerns over the precedent it would set), I was still worried about the impact a lawsuit might have upon my career. That was why I was ready to capitulate.

But my friend told me I was making a big mistake. He predicted that the case would soon break out in the nation media. He also predicted that the case would blow up in the faces of Patti and her family. And he predicted a black eye for the university if they actually went into the account without my consent.

But that would require standing firm. So I changed my mind again and decided to stand firm.

Eventually, my vocal objections to reading my personal emails were, indeed, vetoed by the university. They decided to go into the account. Then they turned over detailed records of who I had been communicating with – including the personal email addresses of everyone I talked to via email for an entire week. Those records were given to Patti and her family. And, naturally, no evidence of “libel” emerged.

Shortly thereafter, a firestorm of controversy broke out. It was all made worse by the fact that administrators at my school lied about what had really happened. They lied (to columnist John Leo, no less) saying that my emails were never examined and then they lied (to scores of people who emailed the school on my behalf) saying that they never turned over any records to my accusers. Then, they paid a dear price for it.

After the story got mention in U.S. News & World Report, the Washington Times (and on NPR, Rush, and Neal Boortz), I felt a sense of vindication. It was also fun to appear live on Hannity & Colmes to discuss the case. It was even more fun when Alan Colmes took my side and tried to get the ACLU involved.

Isn’t it funny how that all worked out? The little communist family tried to sue me, to destroy my reputation, and to end my career. But I ended up getting a book deal, a column, and speaking contracts instead. Rather than losing my house and my guns, I now have a bigger house and more guns than ever before.

I usually don’t like to gloat, unless I’m dealing with communists. Then, I really don’t mind gloating at all.

And, today, what has happened to the poor young America-hater who was “libeled?” Where are her totalitarian parents? Does anyone ever call them to get their perspectives on free speech issues? Is her daddy still an unemployed communist trying to rebuild the Berlin Wall in his infinite spare time?

I don’t know the answer to all these questions but I suspect that the family is still hiding under a rock somewhere, not unlike Osama Bin Laden. But the more important question is this: What would have happened to me, had I made those two cowardly phone calls?

If you do not do that which you know is right, you will never know what kind of happiness and peace of mind you might have attained in this life. So, please, take the time to re-read “Life and how to live it, Part I.” I’ll be writing Part III by the time you finish reading this sentence.