“Any role that I have played in dividing, I wish I could take it back — I don’t wish I could take back the truth that was spoken, but [many] times I could’ve said it differently,” he said. “We are now living in a completely new era, and there is profound opportunity and profound light on the horizon ready to dawn, a world that none of us could understand or even design if we tried, because the possibilities are endless. But so are the nightmares.” He went on: “And it will require all of us to recognize what time we’re living in, to recognize we have a profound responsibility because of the rights we have, and to stand and protect the rights not of those we agree with, but protect the rights of those we vehemently disagree with.” ...................................................................................................... He emphasized the point with an intentionally controversial example, saying “the whole world would be set on fire” if this statement was taken out of context: “If you read the Koran, you will be amazed at the absurdities contained within it.” Beck said that his speech could be be cut to imply that those are his words, though they are not. “That’s a quote from Thomas Jefferson,” Beck said, noting that it was part of a disclaimer printed on Korans by the U.S. Congress when the U.S. went to war with the Barbary pirates. But Beck’s point, he said, was that Jefferson brought copies of the Koran to America and urged all Americans to read it. “Read it yourself and you decide,” Beck said. “That’s what we should be encouraging people to do, not shouting people down in the square.”
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:38:37 +0000
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