So in the middle of all this business of the IRS, the NSA, Benghazi, the investigation of AP and Fox’s James Rosen comes this.
Todd Starnes gets kudos for reporting this. Here’s the link to his story, which we will quote directly:
A veteran member of the U.S. Army Band said he is facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors like Mark Levin and David Limbaugh, and serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at his promotion party.
Army documents obtained by Fox News indicate Sommers was told that his actions bordered on being disrespectful to President Obama and the “slightest inference of disrespect towards superiors can have a demoralizing effect on the unit.”
“You should strive to express your opinion while being aware of the overall ramifications of your statements,” the Army noted.
Sommers’ troubles began last April when he was told to remove pro-Republican, anti-Obama bumper stickers that were on his privately owned car.
The stickers read: “Political Dissent is NOT Racism,” “NOBAMA,” NOPE2012” and “The Road to Bankruptcy is Paved with Ass-Fault.” That sticker included the image of a donkey.
His superior officer told the solider that the bumper stickers were creating “unnecessary workplace tension.”
“The types of stickers on your car were creating an atmosphere detrimental to morale and were creating unnecessary workplace tension,” the officer wrote in an Army document obtained by Fox News. “A Soldier must balance their personal feelings with the mission of the U.S. Army. Even the slightest inference of disrespect towards superiors can have a demoralizing effect on the unit.” …
During the summer months, Sommers came under fire for reading the works of Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and David Limbaugh.
Sommers was reading Limbaugh’s “The Great Destroyer” backstage at a U.S. Army Band concert at the U.S. Capitol. A superior officer told him that he was causing “unit disruption” and was offending other soldiers.
“I wasn’t reading aloud,” he said. “I was just reading privately to myself. I was told they were frowning on that and they warned me that I should not be reading literature like that backstage because it was offensive.”
In another episode, he had been caught backstage reading a copy of Levin’s “Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America.”
Stunning in a country with a First Amendment. Reading books by three prominent mainstream conservative authors/talk radio hosts is causing “unit disruption.”
The political bumper stickers on Sommers’ private automobile were “creating an atmosphere detrimental to morale and were creating unnecessary workplace tension.”
Here’s something Starnes and Sommers may not be aware of.
You remember someone named Colin Powell, yes?
Yes.
Here is an excerpt from General Powell’s memoirs My American Journey, in which Powell discusses his 1964 assignment to Fort Benning, Georgia. In the fall of 1964, of course, the race for president between liberal President Lyndon Johnson and conservative Senator Barry Goldwater was going full steam. LBJ had signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, noted Powell, and Powell decided he was for LBJ. So, writes Powell:
“I went out and slapped a red-white-and-blue sticker on the bumper of my Volkswagen reading ‘All the Way with LBJ’, probably violating post regulations on political activity in the process.”
Probably violating post regulations on political activity in the process.
Hmmmm.
Was Powell called to account? Asked to remove his LBJ bumper sticker? Was his LBJ sticker “creating an atmosphere detrimental to morale and were creating unnecessary workplace tension.”
Not on your life.
What Colin Powell was describing – what he was benefitting from all the way back in 1964 when he was a young Army officer – was what we now call political correctness.
If Master Sergeant Sommers had Obama bumper stickers on his car, if he had been reading Obama’s Dreams of My Father or some political book written by, say, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews or one of Al Franken’s rants published before he became a senator – would Sommers be in trouble? Of course not.
A member of the United States Army is being called to task because he’s reading Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and David Limbaugh.
They are not politically correct.
And thank God for that.
That’s the reason for Master Sergeant Sommers’ trouble.
The only reason.
