From the Editorial Board of the Colorado Springs Gazette

A biology professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, known as PZ “Little Paul” Myers, has no claim to fame beyond an infantile expression of bigotry that went viral, much like a flu virus. Though mostly forgotten, Myers is to an Internet hate virus what that pig in Veracruz, Mexico, is to H1N1. He is the original host in an obscure village.

Myers is the brain trust who obtained a Eucharist from a Catholic Church last year so he could go public desecrating it.

For those unfamiliar with Catholicism, the Eucharist is a consecrated communion host. It is the religious community’s most sacred object, handled in the church only with methodical reverence by those who’ve been trained.

Myers initiated a fight, by committing a hateful act, for no reason other than to indulge an expression of his own disrespect and intolerance of others. This puts him in company with a teenager in Greece who urinated on a Holocaust memorial last year and posted his act on YouTube. Just like the teen urinator, Myers went out of his way to antagonize, disrespect and insult a demographic he dislikes.

Myers had every right to mistreat a sacred religious object, just as he would have a right to burn a Torah or traipse around in a white sheet. The First Amendment protects controversial expressions, including hate speech.

Rights, however, come under threat when people fail to use them in a context of self-control, civility, intelligence and respect for others. The Second Amendment protects gun rights, for example, but the amendment can withstand only so much misuse before people dishonor it or even demand its demise. That’s why a majority of gun owners, and most gun rights organizations, emphasize the safe handling of guns above all else.

For more, read here.