But I learned fast, and pretty soon was getting a seat at the head table at top farm meetings. They liked my schtick. Pass the biscuits. It was a heady time.

That’s not the kind of free speech I’m talking about here. I mean the free speech that goes along with being an American. It belongs to everyone. Black men like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Even white guys like Rush Limbaugh.

But Al and Jesse have conspired – not to deprive Rush of freedom of speech – but to use Limbaugh’s words and beliefs as a club to hurt and demean him. And in the end to make Rush so undesirable that he would be dropped from a group making a bid to buy the St. Louis Rams.

That stinks. But Rush handled the situation well.

The ugly smears are mine, though I draw them from the actual vocabularies of left-wing radicals whose spite often bubbles over like a pot of snake venom when they go after those with whom they don’t agree. The malady seems to affect all of the leftist gabbers to one degree or another. In that sense, it could be called an "Unchained Malady".

Suffice it to say that they waded in swinging – not with their fists, but with their well-exercised wagging tongues.

Fallstrom reported that Sharpton sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, charging that Limbaugh has been divisive and “anti-NFL” in some of his comments.

Jackson said in a telephone interview that Limbaugh had made his wealth ‘appealing to the fears of whites’ with an unending line of insults against black and other minorities.”  (FANHOUSE)

Some of the team members chimed in, twisting Limbaugh over the coals on a spit. But not everyone joined in the verbal lynching.

Cooler, more dispassionate comments were offered by Rams defensive end Leonard Little, who to his credit side-stepped probes by reporters salivating to draw him into the controversy.

He simply didn’t want to talk about it. Little concluded:

“We’ve got a lot more things to worry about than who’s going to be our owner.”

In America, of course, every citizen is entitled to his opinion. It’s just that, in this case, the Rams team member seems a little more entitled than glib race-baiting showboaters like Sharpton and Jackson. Leonard Little makes his living at the game.

Major sports leagues shouldn’t welcome owners who are divisive and incindiery, said the always divisive and incindiery Sharpton.

While the cunning reverends reached for the Prozac over who’s in charge in the front offices of NFL teams, I expect there was a reason they avoided the breaking news in tennis, where popular champions Venus and Serena Williams have bought into ownership of the Miami Dolphins.

All sweetness and light here. And why not? The two stars of the global tennis world have the two things they need to be qualified for reserved seats in the owner’s box at Land Shark Stadium in Miami. Money and motivation.

Rush brought the same qualifications to the NFL bargaining table. And more. He is a solid fan of the NFL. But the conservative broadcaster was up against a stacked deck. He was blackballed by jealous league honchos and vindictive players.

President Obama should not be spared here. He loves his Chicago, speaks glowingly of it, has his real power base there, and sacrifices unselfishly for his city – jetting to Copenhagen to do the presidential fist-bump with Michele and Oprah in celebration of personally bringing the 2016 Summer Olympics home.

Didn’t happen. Chicago, with Obama laying it all on the line, finished dead last. The president lost a lot of points for that miscalculation.  

So do we say that Obama shouldn’t take a position on the onerous murder of one innocent young man in Chicago? Or twenty? Thirty or more? Well, he stooped to take a personal swipe at a Cambridge police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, who arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., for shooting off his mouth at a cop.

The Cambridge police “acted stupidly”, the president assured America at a White House news conference. Much of America wasn’t too sure. And White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs bristled at the suggestion that Obama had spoken inappropriately.

This is Mr. Mouthpiece at his bristling best:

"Let me be clear," Gibbs said, according to a pool report. "He was not calling the officer stupid, okay? He was denoting that . . . at a certain point the situation got far out of hand, and I think all sides understand that." (Brian Motopoli, CBS News Political Hotsheet)

Oh, yeah. Can understand why you might say that, Bob – especially where your boss is concerned.  But, you know, it’s high time the president gave serious consideration to realigning his priorities. He appears not willing to risk bringing public attention and derision to Chicago’s bloody reputation for murder, mayhem and gang brutality.

CNN was only one of many media outlets reporting on the murder of Alex Arellano of Chicago. He was struck down by his own.

One of the most disturbing slayings came (May 1, 2009) when the family of Alex Arellano found the 15-year-old's body. He had been beaten, burned and shot in the head.

"It's sad because they didn't have to torture him that way. He never did nothing wrong, never. He was a good kid. It just gets to me. It's crazy," Alex's friend Ashley Recendez said.

Indeed, police say the teen had no criminal record, no gang affiliation. His family says he was well-behaved and shy, almost fearful of strangers. They had recently taken him out of school to protect him after gang members threatened him. (Dave Mattingly, CNN)

 Another high-profile gang murder of a black teen-ager in Chicago was shocking for its brutality. It happened on September 27, 2009.

A videotape of the despicable incident, which took the life of high school honor roll student Derrion Albert, 16, mesmerized and horrified the nation as an amateur video of the murder splashed across the Internet, television, cable networks.

But “mesmerized” stops so far short of a noble goal. We’ve heard this empty lament before. “Galvanized” is what we should hope for.

Prosecutors charged four teenagers with fatally beating Albert, who was walking to a bus stop when he got caught up in the mob street fighting, authorities said. Their main weapon of choice – splintered pieces of railroad ties –  did the job efficiently, used as clubs to methodically pound Derrion Albert to death.

The White House --convenient barrier to personal involvement by the Maximum Leader -- sent mouthpiece Robert Gibbs into the fray. Gibbs, to his credit, at least labeled the incident a "heinous crime", and promised the administration would soon respond.

 Breathe deeply. Now hold it.

 Actually, it was habitual hearse chasers Lewis Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson who beat the president to the punch in statements served up with generous helpings of pablum.

 Farrakhan . . . said he was bothered to hear a father say on a TV report that young people were not salvageable. "I believe all of us can be saved," Farrakhan said.

 And, Jackson said, students have the right to attend the "closest and safest school possible" rather than have to take multiple buses to get home.

"Why send these children into harm's way every day?" Jackson asked. "These are war zones. This wasn't an incident, it's a pattern." (Kristen Mack, Chicago Tribune)

That’s all. No call to action. No bitter recriminations directed at the young black thugs who killed the young black man. If, as many black American “spokesmen” claim, the community at large cannot – does not – understand the plight and the needs and the frustrations of black America, then don’t pontificate – educate! Spell out the plan, going beyond the typical blustering at how society has failed. First, justice. Then solutions. Then reconstruction. And throughout -- personal responsibility. This will be the key to the vault. Apparently no one has been able to find that elusive key, or – even worse – able to recognize it when they see it.    

 It would be fair to ask – who permits the area where the young man was killed to remain a war zone? Well, the problem is not being attacked with any recognizable fervor or courage by community leaders or educators in the city.

Meanwhile, our president seems clueless as to what he should do. The delay is costing him big-time, and the public is getting impatient.

 If President Obama doesn’t respond as president to the issue of youth violence in America, then he should at least respond as a resident of his Chicago home-town community and work personally to stop the killings and violence here. (The Black Star Project)

The impression of this inaction points to a debilitating moral failure on Mr. Obama’s part. His curious refusal to stand up for the weak, and roundly criticize those who prey on them, must cause us all to wonder at his character, his honesty, and his real commitment to justice – in Chicago, Washington, and around the globe.

In short – who is this guy?

I have seen no personal quotes from Mr. America indicating his awareness that children are dying, children are being killed, and, most chilling of all, children are killing children.