Are we slowly losing our right to free speech? Based on a report shown on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, we very well may be. The FCC, which is an appointed body not an elected one, can control what we hear on radio and television. The fine it levied in the matter of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" was large enough to get the attention of broadcasting companies who now feel they have the right to "bleep" out anything they don't think we should hear. Case in point is Fox networks decision to bleep part of Sally Fields Emmy Awards speech. They claim she used foul language. During Robert Faw's report last night a short clip of the incident was played. What I heard was a passionate statement that "If Mother's ruled the world there would be no more....bleep" Did she say war, or what did she say?
A young man in Florida, while questioning Senator John Kerry, went overlong in his time at the microphone and it was shut off. He became visibly angry, at which point the police stepped in and attempted to take him away. He clearly resisted them which resulted in force being used to subdue him. The video of the incident shows the entire event which includes Senator Kerry's requests to be allowed to answer the young man's "very important questions". Yet all the while the Senator is trying to speak, the police are dragging this young man, knocking him to the floor. The young man tries to pull away from them at every chance shouting "Help!" "What did I do!" and "Don't tazer me Bro!" They tazered him. Whose decision was it that he had said enough? He was tazered for resisting arrest, but why was he subject to arrest to start out with? We have freedom of speech, or do we?
Two years ago, a couple, Jeff and Nicole Rank were arrested for wearing anti-Bush Tshirts at a political rally. They sued and have been awarded $80,000 dollars in damages. We can no longer take pictures of military escorts returning from Iraq with the bodies of our deceased young men and women. Where is this going and why is this happening?
The White House issued a training manual for law enforcement and Secret Service agents. In this manual are instructions on how to spot antiwar demonstrators in large crowds. Also included is the order that these people must be dealt with immediately. Not after they speak their piece, but before. Where is their constitutional right to free speech? What right do we have to remove from any one person their right to have an opinion that differs from ours? We seem to have acquired the habit of turning to Big Brother when we see or hear something we don't wish to. At what point does our own behavior begin to interfere with our own right to free speech, or do we think we should not have one?
The more often we allow others to govern what we can hear or read for that matter, the more we become used to a reduction in our own freedom without really being aware of it. It's a slippery slope which may quickly lead to censorship of the type practiced in communist countries. I'd rather not go there if you don't mind.
I want the right to say what I think, to give voice to my discontent with my government if that's what frame of mind I'm in. I want the right to decide for myself what books I read or what radio shock jock I listen to. I had that right at one time, but if you stop to think about what's happening now, do I still have it? How did we get to the point where wearing a Tshirt that has a circle with a diagonal line through it drawn around the face of our president can get us arrested? How did we get to the point where anyone, while asking questions, can be limited as to the time he takes and then be forcibly removed because he got angry at that action? Is this what we want for ourselves?
