They Can Dish It Out, But Can’t Take It

The conservative newspaper columnist Cal Thomas penned one of his columns arguing that a debate between Fox News Host Laura Ingraham and 17 year old David Hogg, one of the survivors of Parkland Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, would resolve a recent controversy started by Laura Ingraham with a “tweet”.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1155809/a-debate-would-resolve-ingrahamhogg-dustup.html

Ingraham’s tweet was “David Hogg rejected by four colleges to which he applied and whines about it. Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA … totally predictable given acceptance rates.”

The tweet garnered considerable news coverage by the national media.

Apparently Cal Thomas and Lara Ingraham felt the tweet was fair game seeing as that Hogg has become one of the many faces of the gun control movement with the Parkland shooting starting a nationwide movement for gun control supporting a ban on the manufacturing and sale of assault weapons.

Cal Thomas and Lara Ingraham prefer to ignore what has been happening in this country and instead vilify a 17 year old kid.

Since 1995, the United States has had 95 mass shootings, including seven of the 11 deadliest.

Three of the 11 biggest mass shootings in American history have now taken place in the United States in the last five months.

The mass shooting with guns in the last 10 years include: Orlando, Florida (49 killed, 50 injured), Blacksburg, Va. (32 killed), San Ysidro, Cal (21 killed), San Bernardino, (14 killed), Edmond Oklahoma (14 killed), Fort Hood (13 killed), Binghamton, NY (13 killed) Washington, DC (12 killed), Aurora, Colorado (12 killed), Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn (21 children and 6 adult staff members killed) and the largest mass shooting in this country’s history that occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada with at least 59 dead and at least 515 wounded.

And now the country can add the Parkland Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Parkland shooting that resulted in 17 children’s deaths.

After so many mass killings, it is difficult to refute that something needs to be done about semi-automatic and automatic guns such as the AR-15, or the type used in all the mass shootings and that are the weapons of choice for mass murderers.

The difference with the Parkland shooting and all the other mass shootings is that it has finally ignited a national discussion on gun control with the March for Our Life’s movement, and it was the children of our county that have said enough is enough.

Cal Thomas asserted Hoggs “overnight victim status” apparently in the eyes of the left insulates him from the criticism of not being able to get into a prestigious college.

Laura Ingraham apologized for the tweet and went immediately on vacation.

David Hogg for his part called Lara Ingraham a bully, rejected the apology and called for his followers to boycott Ingraham’s show and her sponsors, with many of her sponsor’s cancelling their sponsorships costing FOX News millions.

What is so laughable is how Cal Thomas goes to Ingraham’s defense and says he met Laura Ingraham in the early ’80s when she was a student at Dartmouth College, so she would have been between 18 and 22, and he says she was smart, articulate and opinionated back then defending first amendment rights of a conservative school newspaper to satirize

Thomas goes on to describe Ingraham as “a kind, compassionate woman and a practicing Roman Catholic … a single mother of three adopted children … and a breast cancer survivor”.

Those are very nice words about Laura Ingraham, but David Hogg is a “smart, articulate and opinionated” 17 year old who saw his fellow classmates get killed and is a survivor of a mass school shooting and his religion is no one’s business.

Cal Thomas opined that if Hogg thought he was being bullied by a tweet, how would he react to a real bully who punched him in the face.

Thomas suggested that instead of adopting a “poor me” stance, what Hogg should have done was asked to appear on Ingraham’s show where the two could have debated gun control.

Cal Thomas said Hogg didn’t make the request for a debate but instead Hogg took a swipe at Ingraham in the media.

Thomas goes on to suggest there was “something a little cowardly about” Hogg not asking for a debate.

Like it would be a level playing field for a 17-year-old to go on a right wing talk show so that its host can grill him for the entertainment of her listeners.

At the end of the column, Thomas says in part let “David Hogg speak his immature mind” , let Ingraham speak her mind, “assuming Hogg doesn’t want to adopt another role, that of coward” by not debating.

What is truly cowardly and immature is the likes of Cal Thomas, age 75, Laura Ingraham age 54, with a combined age of 129, feel free to vilify a 17 year old kid.

Cal Thomas showed his ignorance or at the very minimum his age not being familiar with social media bullying.

There have been recent stories in the news where teenagers have committed suicide over social media taunts, but for Cal Thomas real bulling is only physical assault and battery.

Cal Thomas and Ingrham are “media savvy”, have millions of listeners and readers.

Both Thomas and Ingraham have no problem dishing it out claiming they are exercising their first amendment right of free speech and of the press and say what they do is not bullying.

The second anyone who they disagree, such as Hogg, shoves it right back at them, they come unhinged, cannot take it and attack that person on a very personal level with ridicule.

What I am enjoying is a bunch of 17 year old victims making total fools out of both of them and the National Rifle Association.

What I am enjoying immensely is watching Laura Ingraham losing millions in advertising sponsors over her ridicule of a 17-year-old boy for “whining” about not being able to get into a college of his choice.

I believe the First Amendment is safe in the hands of our millennials such as David Hogg and his classmates.

The NRA does not recognize the first amendment of free speech is just as important, if not more important, than the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.

Both the First and Second Amendments, as well as the United States Constitution, and all the other amendments combined, is what makes this country great.

What does not make this country great is a billionaire wearing a red hat that says Make America Great Again (MAGA) and who praises a Russian dictator who interfered with our last presidential election.

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About

Pete Dinelli was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is of Italian and Hispanic descent. He is a 1970 graduate of Del Norte High School, a 1974 graduate of Eastern New Mexico University with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a 1977 graduate of St. Mary's School of Law, San Antonio, Texas. Pete has a 40 year history of community involvement and service as an elected and appointed official and as a practicing attorney in Albuquerque. Pete and his wife Betty Case Dinelli have been married since 1984 and they have two adult sons, Mark, who is an attorney and George, who is an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Pete has been a licensed New Mexico attorney since 1978. Pete has over 27 years of municipal and state government service. Pete’s service to Albuquerque has been extensive. He has been an elected Albuquerque City Councilor, serving as Vice President. He has served as a Worker’s Compensation Judge with Statewide jurisdiction. Pete has been a prosecutor for 15 years and has served as a Bernalillo County Chief Deputy District Attorney, as an Assistant Attorney General and Assistant District Attorney and as a Deputy City Attorney. For eight years, Pete was employed with the City of Albuquerque both as a Deputy City Attorney and Chief Public Safety Officer overseeing the city departments of police, fire, 911 emergency call center and the emergency operations center. While with the City of Albuquerque Legal Department, Pete served as Director of the Safe City Strike Force and Interim Director of the 911 Emergency Operations Center. Pete’s community involvement includes being a past President of the Albuquerque Kiwanis Club, past President of the Our Lady of Fatima School Board, and Board of Directors of the Albuquerque Museum Foundation.