Examples and consequences
<p>SF author and civil-rights activist Joel Rosenberg has been unjustly arrested. Good coverage at <a href="http://www.popehat.com/2010/12/09/the-empire-strikes-back/">PopeHat</a>; essentially this is harassment following a Nov 5th assault on Joel by a cop while he was pursuing a FOIA request related to his first arrest, on bogus charges that prosecutors subsequently dropped.</p>
<p>I have very mixed feelings about this one, because  I suspect I may, in a manner of speaking, have helped get Joel in trouble.</p>
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<p>I don&#8217;t know Joel Rosenberg very well.  I&#8217;ve met him face to face maybe twice, long ago at SF conventions.  We had a few on-line dealings back in Genie/CompuServe days, pre-Internet.  Neither of us had found our power yet; I was just another technogeek and Joel was a decent mid-list SF and fantasy author.  Wasn&#8217;t till years after our limited contact that he discovered what he came to consider his calling as a firearms instructor and Second Amendment activist.</p>
<p>Joel, determined to assert his rights under the law and the U.S. Constitution, did exactly what I would do; he went to City Hall and talked with them about it.  In fact, I don&#8217;t have to use the subjunctive;  I did <a href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=297">exactly that</a> barely a day after the Heller ruling in 2008.</p>
<p>Because my police chief is a small-town conservative who&#8217;s actually read the Constitution and cares what&#8217;s in it, I got back a handshake and a smile rather than a criminal assault and a ration of shit. But it could have gone the other way, too, and very well might have in my nearest big city.  The cops in Philadelphia have some funny (read: ignorant and wrong) ideas about firearms rights.  Even in Malvern I went in aware of the outside possibility that I might be assaulted, arrested and harassed. But I went in anyway because I understood it to be my duty as an American, a patriot, and a man.</p>
<p>Joel understands this duty.  He is an American, a patriot, and a mensch (he&#8217;s Jewish, so I get to use that fine Yiddish word that connotes decency, uprightness, moral fortitude, and a sense of responsibility).  He caught the blowback that I didn&#8217;t.  Not long after he was assaulted I sent him a brief supportive email.</p>
<p>The reply I got back was quite a surprise.  He said my support meant &#8220;more to me than you know&#8221;.  The rest wasn&#8217;t very clear (he had to have been under a fair bit of stress about then) but suggested that I might have at some point after I knew him become one of his heroes or role models or something not completely unlike that considering he&#8217;s three years older than me.</p>
<p>So, maybe I helped Joel get in this trouble.  It makes me happy to think that I might have assisted him in finding the determination to challenge injustice; it&#8217;s the kind of good example I&#8217;ve worked very hard at trying to set.  But by the same token I now feel like I might be partly responsible for the injuries to liberty and dignity that he is now undergoing, and that ain&#8217;t so good.</p>
<p>On another level, I know that&#8217;s silly.  Joel Rosenberg is a <em>man</em>. He makes and owns his choices, and I have no doubt he took his risks with eyes open, same as I did.  We should honor him for that; I know I will.</p>
<p><s>Matters have not deteriorated yet to the point where anyone is talking legal defense fund, so far as I know.  If they do, I plan to give generously.  So should you.</s></p>
<p>UPDATE: I have <a href="http://news.ellegon.com/">donated</a> $100 to Joel&#8217;s defense fund.  Please consider doing likewise.</p>
