One Sixteenth

We heard this on the radio the other day. I had the rest of the drive to explain to the kids why I got so worked up about it.

Really frightening.

The first thing that sprang to my mind was all of the news stories I've read about kids getting suspended for how they dress or the political Tshirts they were wearing. Perhaps they don't see it as important because it's not a right they're currently enjoying to any extent.

And don't forget, they've grown up in a time when the gov't censoring news from the war is a pretty standard and accepted practice. They don't have the same experience of investigative political journalism that we might.

Those are my hasty thoughts - no Canadian bashing, now! lol

No Canadian bashing, but you're mistaken on one point.

There is a great deal of media censoring of the war, but it is NOT from the government. It is from the media itself. It is sad and scary to realize that that message has become so prevalent outside of the U.S.

It's fairly easy to find out the facts of what's going on, and to compare that to the media reports, and see just who is telling the truth.

You're right about the zero-tolerance crap in the schools, though. It does foster that kind of thinking. However, the teachers are SUPPOSED to teach that our freedoms are sacred. My whole point is that the schools are screwing that up, and that is going to lead us to a bad, bad place down the road.

And yet, in an article I had to look up in disbelief of what I'd just heard on the radio (link below), the survey reported a large majority of the kids believe that musical performers should be free to express unpopular opinions.

I guess the kids are as ignorant of the entertainment business as they are of their own constitutional rights.

Remember the Dixie Chicks?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-01-30-students-press_x.htm

Scary? Yes. Surprising? No. The entirety of the Bill of Rights is being waylaid by those who think we are too ignorant to run our own lives. One Amendment at a time, and this isn't the first one to be thrown under the bus. But that's a rant for another time, I suppose.

The Dixie Chicks issue was not about freedom of speech- that's about Free Market. The gov't didn't come down on them, the consumers did. Folks can say anything they want, but we don't have to pay to support it. HUGE BIG HONKIN difference, there.

Dy

Dy,

I meant the irony that the kids feel musicians and such should have the right to express their own unpopular opinions, but look what happened when those musicians did.

And much of the record burning protests were spurred on by media promotions. Look at how omnipotent a company like Clear Channel is (although I can't say for sure they were behind that particular example.) They own the artists, the venues, the stations, and thoroughly control the media, print and electronic...

As long as those musicians express their own unpopular opinions that agree with the general public's, they won't be punished for their First Amendment rights.

Technically though, the Dixie Chicks were never punished for expressing their First Amendment rights. The F.A. protects free speech from being trampled on by the government, specifically. Free speech may be repressed by any private business, or the media, or what have you. (I'll save my personal rant about Clear Channel for another time. Clear Channel and their like do control too much, but that still doesn't make them an arm of the government.) What happened to the Dixie Chicks is that a great many people didn't like what they said, and made that clear. When you're in a business that depends on the public, as they are, that's a risk you take.

But I get your point, Lynne. It is ironic. Terribly so. I wonder what the demographic fallout is between the people who bashed the Dixie Chicks for experssing their opinion, and the people who screamed that the bashers were censoring the Dixie Chicks? I wonder if more high school kids supported the Chicks, and more older folks opposed them? Just musing, htere.

Dy, I guess it's not surprising, but it still hurts. Yes, the constitution is essentially dead, but I'm not yet willing to take my fingers out of my ears and let that reality hit.