Letter to Fairfield City Council, Truth sounds like hate to those who hate truth.

Dear Mayor and City Council,

I noticed a few days ago the comments by Dave Harrison, asking the council to stop me from speaking because, according to him, there is going to be violence.  I want to address the First Amendment and make a few points on it.

But, to begin with, let’s consider his comments.  Here is the video of his comments; it was shown nationwide and worldwide and got some attention.  Gab is one of the few free-speech websites that do not ban criticism of any group.  That said, I don’t agree with profanity and racial slurs, and so I don’t agree with all commenters on the post, but most of the commenters had well-considered comments.  Notice that on a free speech website that doesn’t censor as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram do, there wasn’t a single favorable comment toward Mr. Harrison or the Mayor.  I learned in school that what is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right. So, millions of Americans would agree that I shouldn’t be allowed to say things they don’t like to hear, but Free Speech was never designed to be decided by judges, voters, or politicians.  It is a right given to every American by God.  No politician or judge is allowed to decide what speech is allowed and what isn’t, with a few exceptions that will be addressed.

Here are his spoken remarks, written:

“……I want to talk about the First Amendment.  It’s the reason I’m speaking tonight.  First Amendment gives everyone that comes up here tonight the right to say what they wanted to say whatever it was. What the First Amendment doesn’t do is give you the right to speak hate speech without consequence.  The gentleman who spoke first, this is the second meeting in a row that I’ve heard him deliver extreme hate speech with no consequences, so I’m going to ask the city council if we could condemn that sort of hate speech, publicly, and disallow folks like whatever his name was. There’s women and children here so I won’t tell you what I really think, but to condemn the words that he uses on this microphone.  It is inappropriate in a city that I love, that I’ve lived in my entire life and I would really like the city council to do something about it.”

Mayor Rick Vaccaro followed with: “I tend to agree with you.  If we could, what could we do with something like that? I know the First Amendment is strong.”

Then, Mr. Harrison follows with: “There’s going to be violence because of it.”

Mayor: “I agree, Dave, I’ve heard him speak before.”

I’m shocked that we hear a citizen say something like this at a council meeting, demonstrating a gross ignorance of the Constitution and the Spirit and Letter of the First Amendment, but I’m even more shocked that the Mayor actually agreed with this outrageous statement, and basically, that we had two men tacitly accepting that violence is a proper response to unpopular opinions.  Already, before I make my speeches, I have to consider: if I tell the truth, will I be interrupted, and I’ve had to leave many perfectly truthful remarks out of my speeches, simply because I have a concern about being interrupted.  American citizens shouldn’t have to worry that if they state unpopular truths, they will be interrupted by elected officials or members of the audience.  This is an injustice against the speaker and the entire city, because now much-needed truths that are rare will be censored from a public that is being lied to 24/7 by television, influencers, newspapers, radio, and social media, and that rarely gets the truth.

Here is a link to my website, and these confrontations are not new.  Over 13 years of speaking, I’ve had hundreds of these.  https://Messanonews.com.  At the bottom of the Restore America page, there are 69 videos (included at the end of this letter for ease of viewing); the vast majority are of council meetings across America.  Vallejo, Davis, Sacramento, Dickinson, North Dakota, Fairfield, Walnut Creek.  It is to be expected that there will be furious outbursts when, as I’ve noted many times, our media has been controlled for well over a century.   Control of the media equals control of the minds of the majority of the population.

Of particular interest is a Walnut Creek patriot who understands the First Amendment and got up to chastise the City Council for trying to restrict speech they didn’t like.  July 1st, 2023: Brave patriot in Walnut Creek calls out City Council for suppressing criticism of Jews!

Here are three quotes which I feel are relevant to this.  First, “Truth sounds like that to those who hate truth.”  Second, “No man is hated more than he who tells the truth,” Plato. And Tertullian said, “The First response to truth is hatred.”  Mr. Harrison’s speech exemplified all of these sayings.

There are no exceptions for hate speech in the First Amendment. Incredibly, in 2017, the Supreme Court voted 8-0 in Matal Vs. Tam that hate speech isn’t excluded from First Amendment protections.  That means incredibly liberal justices like Ruth Bader Ginsberg even agreed.  However, when we examine the writers of the Constitution, who were all White men, a fact which brings in a lot of jealousy, envy, and hatred from many who are ignorant of history, and not a few who aren’t White, they were very clear that wisdom and virtue were needed for liberty to be obtained by any people.  Quotes on Liberty and Virtue

When we examine the definition of virtue, it means, according to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary: Moral goodness; the practice of moral duties and the abstaining from vice, or a conformity of life and conversation to the moral law. In this sense, virtue may be, and in many instances must be, distinguished from religion. The practice of moral duties merely from motives of convenience, or from compulsion, or from regard to reputation, is virtue as distinct from religion. The practice of moral duties from sincere love to God and his laws is virtue and religion. In this sense it is true.

Necessary inference tells us this definition excludes profanity, racial slurs, and pornography.  And yet, Mr. Harrison did not have a problem with any of these, and he even, when he said he didn’t want to say what he really thought of me because women and children were present, seemed to hint that he wanted to use profanity.   So, he came to try to restrict my speech, yet he wanted to invoke speech that the writers of the First Amendment did not have in mind as protected.  I haven’t heard a single member of the council object to often-used profanity, or any publicly state the First Amendment doesn’t protect pornography or racial slurs.

We also have to consider the origins of the term “Hate Speech.”  Hate Speech was originally used in Communist Russia, and it was used against political opponents of the Communists. If you said something the Communists didn’t like, you were put in a concentration camp, or you were put to death.  The Sordid Origin of Hate-Speech Laws | Hoover Institution The Sordid Origin of Hate-Speech Laws

Then we must consider, “Who is the arbiter of hate speech?” Because as the Walnut Creek speaker said, if you limit others’ speech, who is to stop them from voting their candidate into office, and limiting your speech?

I never heard Mr. Harrison or the Mayor use the word “Truth” because the fact is they didn’t refute a single one of the facts I laid out, and I stated well over a dozen.  I’ve been called many things, but never a liar.  Yes, the truth is often wildly unpopular, but it is the duty of listeners to have self-control.  If people cannot listen to facts they don’t like to hear without getting violent, then they really don’t belong at council meetings, and they don’t really belong in America.  They can consider moving to China, where they are not allowed to speak their minds. I expected the Mayor to gently correct Mr. Harrison when he asked to silence my opinion. Then I said there would be violence by saying something like, “I understand you disagree with the speaker, Mr. Harrison, but the First Amendment allows all speech, even the speech we hate.  And it is the job of every elected official, every police officer, and every member of the military to protect the First Amendment rights of every single American, not just the ones they agree with.  Mao and Stalin both allowed speech they agreed with; that is not free speech.”  We should not forget the Founders gave us the First Amendment, followed by the Second Amendment, so that when a man’s right to speak is taken away, he can still defend himself.  For, if a man is not allowed to speak his mind in public to defend himself, after he is silenced, how is he to defend himself from being put to death?  First, a man was silenced in Communist Russia and China, and then he was often put to death.  It’s very disturbing that you are following a pattern; it is not clear that you have thoroughly researched.

Mr. Harrison called what I said “Hate speech.”  What did I say?  That a small group of people controls our media and money?  Is that true?  Yes, it is.  And he’s saying that’s Hate speech?  Ludicrous.  Also, I just finished saying the group who controls the media is the Pharisees, who worked to silence Jesus and eventually used violence against him, when Mr. Harrison rushes up to commit the same mistake, as he tries to silence me and threatens that there will be violence if I’m not silenced.

The First Amendment gives us five rights.  The right to grieve, or complain about our government (and there is a lot to complain about), the right to religion, the right to assemble, the right to speech (all speech, with few restrictions, and there are no restrictions for imaginary “hate speech”), and the right to a free press (we don’t have a free press, as the money powers control nearly all media).  Now, there are no protections, as discussed earlier, for racial slurs, profanity, or pornography.  This has been badly distorted by our perverted courts over the last century, particularly over the last 66 years, but the original spirit is going to be restored.  Incidentally, an NGO in Los Angeles is fighting to protect the N word and C word, saying that’s free speech, when it isn’t.  LA city council bans these 2 controversial words; groups threaten freedom of speech lawsuit.  This same group will defend perverse language, but they won’t defend me when I lay out incontrovertible facts.  That’s because these NGO’s (nongovernmental organizations) are all funded from the shadows by the same group that is working to make America degenerate, as a morally weak people is easy to rule.

To end, let us remember that Socrates was put to death by a 500-man jury in Athens, for what would be called “hate speech” today.  The term hate speech didn’t exist in Socrates day or in the time of Christ, and Jesus would have been called an antisemite and a hateful bigot if those terms were around in his day as well.  Jesus was crucified on trumped-up charges, and Pilate listened to the crowd, though he knew Jesus was innocent.  So, does this City Council want to be remembered for being a Pilate in the future?  Is that what you want your legacy to be?  One commenter on Mr. Harrison’s video called him “Pilate.”

Also, a very disturbing trend shows that women and people who aren’t White have large numbers who do not support absolute free speech, while the vast majority of Whites, and Mr. Harrison is in a minority of Whites, with the Mayor, do support absolute Free speech.  It’s highly troubling that if members of the Black community can come and cause an uproar while complaining about the treatment of a Black child by police, legitimate in my view, somewhat, nearly shutting down meetings, and you don’t have a problem with that speech. Still, if a White man comes up to complain about issues faced by Whites, you think this is “hate speech,” we have a serious problem.  This is why many Whites are skeptical of non-Whites’ ability to assimilate, because few people who aren’t White agree with the spirit of the Law on the First Amendment, that all ideas are allowed to be spoken in the public arena, excepting the three exceptions earlier noted, with no exceptions for made-up “hate speech.” Hate speech is just a term used for speech people disagree with.

It’s ironic, because we just celebrated the 250th anniversary of our country, and every single one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence would have the same opinions that I’m saying today.  So, anyone who thinks what I’m saying is hate speech would say the Founders of this country were guilty of hate speech as well.  The internet was rolled out roughly around 1991, and before that, the term “hate speech” was rarely used. But with the advent of social media, particularly Facebook, we now have a population conditioned by it on what they can and cannot say.  City Council meetings are not Fakebook, where an invisible group of censors dictates what is said and what isn’t said.  There are no bans or censorship of people you disagree with at public meetings, as Facebook has trained millions to do.  This is another reason why no American should be on social media.  For to go on Social media is to agree to have an invisible government do your thinking for you.

Here are a few relevant quotes from men of the classical past.

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience.” — William O. Douglas.

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech,” and “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”

Ben Franklin

“The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable”

James Madison

“The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas – that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market”

Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without Freedom of Speech.”

Benjamin Franklin

“Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.”

Thomas Jefferson

“For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.”

George Washington

“In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech; a thing terrible to publick traytors.”

Benjamin Franklin

“The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed, the enlightened; to the straight-out lie, the simple truth.”

Anthony Kennedy, SCOTUS Justice

“Give me the liberty to know to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience above all liberties.” – John Milton

Implied in this passage is the following general argument for freedom of speech:

I appreciate your consideration of this letter, and I hope and pray that you would defend the God-given rights of every American, not just those you agree with.  For if you attack my First Amendment rights, you also attack your own, and the First Amendment rights of every single one of the 340 million Americans, and there are tens of millions of Americans who do not appreciate government officials trying to police their opinions with viewpoint discrimination, which is essentially what the Mayor agreed to at the last meeting.  The only person he attempted to silence was someone whose opinions he didn’t agree with.

Also, I’d welcome the opportunity to meet with each of you individually.  I can be reached at (707) 580-1849. Unlike Mr. Harrison, I have no problem calmly listening to concerns and criticism of what I say.  The truth has nothing to fear from criticism.  I commend Ms. Bertani, for while I realize she and I do not agree on probably many ideas, she at least takes notes when I’m speaking, which is wise because the shortest pencil is better than the longest memory.  When I’m speaking for three minutes, it’s the result of thousands of hours of deep research and reading on these topics, not obtained from doomscrolling on social media, watching movies, or watching the History Channel.  To prove what I’m saying will take intense research, which fewer and fewer Americans are willing to do these days.  As we learned from Mr. Harrison, many Americans will attend meetings to ask the council to silence opinions they find disturbing, rather than doing the research to determine whether the ideas are objectively true. I can assure you that the ideas I lay out are objectively true.   I will call each of you to try to set up a meeting, but my experience with public officials is that you rarely meet with members of the public who aren’t endorsed by the corrupt media.

Humans are like tea bags; you can’t tell what flavor they are until they are in hot water.  When I speak on controversial issues at council meetings, it allows me to see exactly who the council members are, and I’ve been disappointed many times.  But, ultimately, one man with God is a majority.  As Isaiah said (he’d be called an incel today, as he was unmarried with no children) in 51:12, “I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;”.   I’m not worried about death, for as Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”  And, if a man has two friends when he dies, his conscience and God, that is all the friends he needs.

Sincerely yours,

Ryan Messano