I Will Not Be Silenced

As I write this article, I am sitting in jail accused of a supposed crime I did not commit and being treated as if I am guilty until proven innocent. No one told me what exactly I did to land here in jail and no one can be bothered to tell me how long I may have to stay. Sure, I have asked multiple times and insisted upon my innocence but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

Okay, so I’m not really in a physical jail, I’m in Twitter jail–or as the regulars fondly refer to it as “Gulag.” This is my second stay in this jail in the last six days; I have spent nearly 80 hours (and counting!) in Gulag with no access to my friends / followers. Like many people on Twitter, I have a backup account so I can at least stay in touch with a few folks and watch over my suspended account.  (“Suspension”, by the way, is the official Twitter term, although I prefer to call it the slammer because it is much more dramatic and accurate.)

The first time I went into the slammer was over a tweet I sent to Senator John McCain. It was during the immigration bill and I merely reminded the good senator that there are currently four million legal immigrants waiting to lawfully enter this country. Yes, that was my crime. Originally I thought I had been targeted by liberals and reported (this seems to happen a lot) but then I got an email from Twitter explaining my McCain comment was an “unwanted tweet.”

So apparently the senator, or someone in his office, reported me specifically to Twitter. Fast forward 40 hours and they released me from the slammer; I was out on “good behavior” for all of 30 hours when I was put back in. Ironically when I was suspended this time, I had barely been on Twitter at all and had really only said good morning to a few friends. At the time of this article, I am still in the slammer and not sure what I did.

Well okay, that’s not entirely true. I have a good idea of what I’ve done and frankly I’m not about to stop doing it any time here soon. Let’s be honest–my real crime is that I’m a conservative on social media daring to share information and opinions that are not popular with a progressive agenda. Further, Facebook and Twitter both are well known for being liberally biased, so being an outspoken conservative woman in these environments can get you in trouble.

I’m sure some people are ready to hand me a tinfoil hat but I can tell you from experience in dealing with liberals in social media, they are nasty creatures who insult, deflect and attack seemingly with little to no consequence. While I sit in the slammer for who knows what, I can see liberals attacking conservatives, wishing death on them, swearing at and harassing them with no real retribution. Same on Facebook; I went into Facebook jail earlier this year because I used a gentleman’s name during a debate. They “put me away” for seven days for that little offense, even though he had called me names and remained free to attack others.

We know Zuckerburg loves Obama and just like other Silicon Valley progressives and Twitter does as well. They haven’t exactly concerned themselves with appearing fair and unbiased. That being said, I do not intend to stop speaking out any time soon and in fact my times in jail have made my resolve even stronger. I am being suspended and denied my First Amendment rights because certain people don’t like what I have to say.  I may not like what you have to say either, but I will fight tooth and nail for you to have the right to say it. I guess that’s one of the biggest differences between conservatives and liberals…

Fellow conservatives, I know you’re out there and I know you’re being punished in the realm of social media for speaking your minds. DO NOT STOP speaking out. DO NOT be silenced. If we want to change the dialogue in this country and refocus on freedom and liberty, we must continue to fight this attack on our first amendment rights. I know, you’re getting beat up and it’s exhausting, but we’re making a difference, our message is being heard and people are learning about conservative ideals and how they will save this country.

I will not be silenced, and neither should you.