An October 10 Rocky Mountain News “Speakout” op-ed critical of Boulder High School students who protested the reading of the Pledge of Allegiance and others whom the author, Krista Kafer, called “the offended in America,” identified Kafer only as “a freelance writer living in Littleton.” In fact, Kafer co-hosts the weekly KNUS 710 AM conservative radio talk show Backbone Radio with former Republican Colorado Senate President John Andrews, and is a conservative blogger, a senior fellow in education policy at the free-market think tank the Independence Institute, and a former senior education policy analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation.
In her guest op-ed, Kafer wrote that the protest by the Boulder High students “reflects a larger effort by the offended to silence those with whom they disagree. Rather than engage in discourse and offer their own ideas, they shout down speakers, censor skeptics, try to halt parades, ban holiday celebrations, shamelessly smear their opponents and occasionally throw pies.” Kafer further wrote:
To be sure, the offended in America would like the government to grant them power over the speech of others. They would like a “heckler's veto,” to use Chief Justice William Rehnquist's words. The late justice noted in his concurring opinion in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, upholding voluntary recitation of the pledge, that the “Constitution only requires that schoolchildren be entitled to abstain from the ceremony if they chose to do so.”
In the U.S., no group can legitimately use the power of the federal government to silence another group or individual. Rep. Mark Udall's congressional resolution denouncing radio personality Rush Limbaugh comes eerily close. As does Sen. Ken Salazar's effort to force the radio host to apologize for a misconstrued statement that offended the left. Censuring individuals is not their job, quite the opposite. Anyone can turn off the radio. It is not the place of government to do it for him.
In addition to her work with the Heritage Foundation, Kafer's biography on the Independence Institute website notes that she “worked for two Members of Congress including Colorado's own [Republican] Congressman Bob Schaffer."
