Felicia Simmons Provides LD11 the Only Way to Vote for Free Speech for Assembly : Bravo and Good Luck!
Congrats to WE THE PEOPLE independent candidate for Assembly in NJ’s 11th Legilslative DIstrict Felicia Simmons for this powerful statement in defense of Free Speech in NJ issued on her Facebook page on October 12. FightBackBetter strongly urges LD 11 voters and all of NJ to consider support for her efforts challenging the two incumbent Democrats (Peterpaul / Donlon) who are both supporters of the fascist IHRA codification that will bring physical, possibly lethal, legal, personal, professional and reputational harm to NJ’s pro-Palestine advocates and would also threaten funding to public schools, colleges, universities, municipalities, libraries and non-profits that are deemed not to be adequately authoritarian toward Israel ctiticism. Visit candidate Simmons at her campaign site.
My view on IHRA
Over the past few days, a few community groups reached out to me about a bill moving through the New Jersey Assembly Sponsored by our current D11 members bill that includes language tying criticism of the State of Israel to anti-Semitic speech.
I took the time to sit, listen, and do my due diligence because I don’t speak on things I don’t study. I am not blind to what’s happening in the Middle East, across the globe, or right here in the United States.
As a Black woman who grew up hearing, “we can’t drink that soda because it supports apartheid in South Africa,” I remember those lessons. Later I learned that South Africa studied American segregation to build there system . So I understand how our struggles are connected — how oppression and the fight for freedom speak the same language, no matter where it happens.
That’s why I can’t support any bill that would blur the line between hate speech and free speech. Hate speech is ugly, harmful, and must be condemned but criticism is not hate.
The strength of this country and the reason I still believe in it is that our Constitution gives us the right to speak truth to power, to challenge systems, and to demand justice when our government, or any government, gets it wrong.
We can love people and still challenge policy.
We can oppose hate while still defending speech.
That balance is what keeps us free.
So when I speak, it’s not against anyone it’s for everyone.
Because in these truths, we truly find “We the People.”
#WeThePeople#FreeSpeech#JusticeForAll#Constitution#Equality#LD11#FeliciaSimmons
