I'm open minded, I just don't want to hear what you have to say

In this article by Beth Shayne, a "Conservative kiosk " selling bumper stickers in Concord Mills mall in Concord, North Carolina, will have its lease expire at the end of July without an option to renew because of a letter to the editor of the Charlotte Observer.

In the letter to the editor, the author hypocritically stated, "It’s hard to stay open-minded when such uncivilized and outdated ideas are endorsed on a daily basis. It’s 2009; please, let’s at least try to put this type of bigotry to an end." I love the display of ignorance and hypocrisy in this entire statement. First, one has to try and stay open-minded? Really, I thought being open minded was a permanent mindset, one either is or isn't. Second, is the author of the letter open minded when they're driven to write an attack in their newspaper because the ideas were contrary to the ones s/he believes in? The author has a right to disagree by not buying the bumper stickers, or even better, opening a kiosk that supports their ideas and let the free market dictate the outcome.

Let's take this a step further. In the second sentence from the referenced quote, the adjective "bigotry" was used. In this case, it was used a pejorative, a word meant to have a belittling effect. I've talked about this before, but when Liberals don't agree with you, they revert to using pejoratives when they run out of arguments. So if they don't agree with you on illegal immigration for example, they'll revert to calling you a racist, bigot, xenophobe, etc. in order to belittle you and your stance on the issue. In this case, the author of the letter to the editor didn't agree with the bumper stickers, so s/he threw out the pejorative bigotry. By definition, bigotry is "stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own." So really, the kiosk owner is a bigot but the author of the letter isn't?

It's really a financial loss for Concord Mills mall in this entire debacle. Based on the fact that the kiosk owner was able to pay rent for six months since opening, he must have been at least breaking even if not making a profit. Though it doesn't surprise me when I read the owner of the mall was an Obama / Democrat supporter, it does surprise me when Liberals talk about how "open minded" or "tolerant" they are. After all, they are the authors of Laws that ban speech they deem offensive, or as they deceitfully call it, "Hate Speech," contrary of course to our First Amendment Right to speech without government reprisal.