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TX Governor Endorsed Hotel’s Canceling of Rep. Tlaib’s Keynote
From KHOU-TV:
An event hosted by the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights will no longer be held at a Houston hotel where it was scheduled to take place later this month.
The Hilton Houston Post Oak by the Galleria was going to host the Seize the Moment US Campaign for Palestinian Rights National Conference from Oct. 27 to Oct. 29.
The hotel cited concerns for its team members and guests for calling it off.
“Given escalating security concerns in the current environment, the hotel has determined that it cannot serve as the venue for this event because of the potential risks,” the hotel said in a statement.
Several speakers were scheduled to show up for the conference, including journalist and academic Marc Lamont Hill, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (keynote speaker) and senior staff attorney Daila Shamas. The conference was to be moderated by Rasha Mubarak.
In the last few days, the event had come under fire, targeted by a conservative media pressure campaign, which called on people to call Hilton and complain about the event.
Gov. Abbott posted to X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday night, about the cancellation, saying it was the right thing for the hotel to do: “Hilton Hotels in Houston was correct to pull the plug on the U.S. Campaign for Palestine Rights event hosted by Hamas supporters. Texas has no room for hate & antisemitism like that supported by Hamas. No location in Texas should host or sponsor USCPR.”
I have a real problem with the Governor of Texas weighing in. I think he should have held his tongue. Indeed, I think the idea that security risks were at issue, he should have offered Texas Rangers to protect the facility and ensure that the horrible ideas were able to be said. The time to be for Free Speech the most is when the ideas being said are horrid.
This is a missed opportunity to support free speech and to allow evil to show itself uncovered.
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That’s a more valid argument when the other side has the same opportunity to make their case. Too often these days, that doesn’t happen. And to be fair, if one side is going to be silenced, then both sides should be silenced.
I understand that sentiment.
And
This was a missed opportunity to get this done right.
In another time, I would agree. But look at this sorry party. We can’t even elect a Speaker without a bunch of ninnies threatening to vote Democrat. Elected Republicans vote DEMOCRAT!
I’m not a fan of cancellation, but here we are, and nothing we do reduces our own cancellation. It’s been decades since E. O. Wilson was hounded and threatened out of university classrooms for daring to suggest that the same things which are biologically true of the entire rest of the world of living things might also be true of humans. Do we see less of that student terror these days, or more? From University speech to murder verdicts *including* official testimony from government office-holders, we are a terrorized, intimidated, conquered people exiled to the sidelines in our own country.
So screw ’em.
Blockade away. We have tried for decades to win by being more decent, more law-abiding, more patient and tolerant etc, and all we get is beaten to death at an intersection. Screw the left.
I’m glad Talib’s terror conference got cancelled and I’m glad Abbott escalated.
Okay, but only if we go first, and without threats, intimidation, vandalism… from the other side.
Abbott should have held his tongue. Look for Texas getting sued for suppression of 1st Amendment rights.
They made the rules. We fought them, but they won. Now their rules apply to them.
How does that happen, if he just agreed with what Hilton already did on their own?
Chilling effect. Penumbrae and emanations. Microaggressions. Stored trauma.
Yup. I don’t know if TX would lose such a suit, but it’s better (IMO) to avoid such a thing. Which Abbott could have.
This is Texas. For our Democrats (and lately, even some liberal Republicans), lawfare is as natural as breathing. It doesn’t need a legal justification, or to even make sense.
My point is that “avoiding” isn’t going to save anything. They just come and take it anyway. The left doesn’t need evidence or provocations — they just take.
I generally agree with this take, but in this instance Abbott should have kept quiet. When Hilton is sued (and it will be), TX could file an amicus brief supporting Hilton.
HIlton has every right to say there are security concerns.
Politicians, even good ones like Abbott, just can’t seem to resist jumping on any bandwagon that comes along.
That is a very reasonable point of view.
However, it is important to keep in mind that the Bill of Rights was written by people who had just gone through the Revolutionary War. These rights were not negotiable to them, even in times of war. In fact, the rights of individuals would stand firm especially in times of war.
But I do agree with you about inciting the enemy.
I think the answer is for us to work harder to put our wisdom and knowledge about this war out into the world of influence-making so that our voice is as loud as theirs is.
I don’t have another answer.
Words are supposed to replace the force of deadly violence.
The need for us to do this hard work is perpetual. But we have to do it.
Those people had in fact FOUGHT A WAR to secure those rights, and here, we won’t even applaud an elected official for putting his foot down about enemy meetings.
I was making both a tactical and moral argument, here.
I do not see this conference as incitement. I also think there was a chance to make an important and eye opening point.
I like Greg Abbott and I do agree with both of you.
I can see a case clearly for this conference aiding and abetting the enemy.
Their ideas will inflame the enemy more than they already are, and they are playing right into Hamas’s media war to win hearts and minds, as it were. And that’s what this is. That’s why Hamas blamed Israel for blowing up that hospital that they themselves blew up. It’s how they operate. With unrelenting propaganda.
So I support his decision for many reasons.
But I still think we have to fight as hard to defend the rights articulated in our own Bill of Rights. Otherwise, the moral high ground can be hard to see.
If it were me, if I were the governor, I’d let the conference proceed and just be ready to refute every evil thing the participants said. My goal would be to protect the rights of individuals to think and say whatever they want as long as they don’t break the law in doing so.
But that’s an entirely subjective call. I really do see his and your side in this.
The Brits fought off the Nazi propaganda with C. S. Lewis. :) :)
The “security threat” risk is a tool of the left for banning speakers so it should be used sparingly. Because we at newly renamed Lenin & Floyd University are a diverse and open community that encourages our students to mob and injure conservative speakers and because it would be costly to try to prevent or curtail behavior we actually encourage both tacitly and sometimes overtly, we cannot allow anyone we don’t like to speak.
I wish the hotel would have said, “We’re cancelling this event because these people are first class *ssh*l*s.”
I’ll offer a law enforcement view.
The hotel is private property. Their concerns would be the safety of guests and staff. Then comes protecting the building. Next comes insurance issues. Insurance for losses due to a riot is available, and it’s expensive, but sometimes the one claim is enough for an insurance company to pay the one claim and then drop coverage for future claims.
Private property such as hotels and shopping malls may restrict speech and soliciting on their properties. This is what is called ‘Code of Conduct’ rules.
Special events on private property can be complex in that private security can be hired but that involves lawful authority issues between the hotel, and someone in charge of the event in removing individuals from the property.
Demonstrations on public property such as parks are different. Restricting speech is covered by free speech protections. Peaceful demonstrations must be allowed, but criminal activity can lead to an unlawful assembly being declared to disperse the mob.
I am 100% down with this. The Hotel gets to make this call, as advised by their insurance company. Further, they have every right to say “We don’t want speech like that.”
And, that very argument is used to shut down conservative conventions and speakers.
What I was unhappy about was a government official weighing in .
I agree 100%. Hilton has the right to host or not host whatever conferences they see fit. But the governor weighing in and encouraging that certain views should be shut down is wrong, in my opinion. Governor Abbott should — and probably has and will — make speeches denouncing terrorism in general and Hamas in particular, but applauding shutting down people for having reprehensible views was wrongheaded.
It wasn’t Abbott who made that decision, it wasn’t up to him to “let” the conference proceed or not.
He just agreed with the decision made by the hotel.
He did not have too
Thank you. I didn’t realize that.
I think the real danger was that the hotel’s clientele would view this event as an endorsement, and hold their events somewhere else… IF there was a security risk, it was from the conference’s attendees or sympathizers gathering on the street…
Good for Abbot. He hasn’t curtailed free speech rights for USCPR – he’s just telling them there is no room in Texas for their garbage. Take it elsewhere and spew your hatred.
Let them speak and then burn down the meeting hall where they spoke with them in it. This would be the proportional response we’ve been lectured about.
“Stored Trauma”–exactly right. The inventory of “stored trauma” is increasing exponentially. This kind of psuedo-trauma is easier to make than Meth and far more addictive.