Let Me Say This About That - Part 1

OK, buckle up, this may be a bumpy ride but stick with me to the end of my two-part post.

Feel free to comment if you do or don't like what I say!!


When our freedom of speech is gone and we no longer are allowed to express ourselves, we will be nothing. Wag 2007

When we are no longer able to listen to others and make our own judgments, we will be ineffective. Wag 2007

When we are unable to listen and speak, we will no longer be able to think. Wag 2007

When we are no longer able to think, we will be non-productive. Wag 2007

When we are non-productive, we will cease to exist. Wag 2007

Who changed the rule to say you can only say what I want to hear and I can only say what you want to hear?

Why have we become so sensitive to what people say that we insist on punishing the person?

Anyone can be can be offended during a normal conversation if they are looking to be offended.

I am so tired of not being able to talk for fear of alienating someone.

I have a right to say it and you have a right to disagree.



Let's start with the Imus debacle.

Did I like what he said? Of course not. It was ignorant, insensitive and offensive.

But so are many of the words that come out of the mouths of radio shock jocks/comedians.

The only people that had a legitimate complaint were the girls on the Rutgers basketball team. The rest of the people that jumped on the bandwagon had no right to, period.

You don't have to agree or like what was said but he had a right to say it, and the only ones that had a right to complain were the girls affected.

They did not ask that he be fired!!

Imus was hired to do exactly what ABC/CBS hired him to do (Shock) and the sponsors knew that when they forked up the money to be on his show.

Someone in the media picked up on what only about 5% of the people in the United States had heard on the Imus show and then rebroadcast it over and over to make sure the other 95% of the people could hear it.

Then Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton started flexing their muscle knowing they would have one more platform so they could continue blackmailing white America for profit and attention.

Once again it worked. The Corporation and Sponsors couldn't run fast enough.

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton long ago lost touch with what Martin Luther King stood for.

Businesses, corporations, schools, you name it, have all got a fear factor that if someone working for them thinks or expresses themselves, and God forbid, someone somewhere out there is offended, then those businesses, corporations, schools think they must distance themselves by firing that person.

ex·pres·sion

1. The act of expressing, conveying, or representing in words, art, music, or movement; a manifestation
2. Something that expresses or communicates
3. Mathematics - A symbol or combination of symbols that represents a quantity or a relationship between quantities.
4. The manner in which one expresses oneself, especially in speaking, depicting, or performing.
5. A particular word or phrase

freedom of speech

Right, as stated in the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, to express information, ideas, and opinions free of government restrictions based on content. A modern legal test of the legitimacy of proposed restrictions on freedom of speech was stated in the opinion by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in Schenk v. U.S. (1919): a restriction is legitimate only if the speech in question poses a "clear and present danger" — i.e., a risk or threat to safety or to other public interests that is serious and imminent.


Follow along with this next exhibit:

Professor Fired After Mock Student Shootings

Pretended to Shoot Students During Virginia Tech Talk

BOSTON - An adjunct professor was fired after leading a classroom discussion about the Virginia Tech shootings in which he pointed a marker at some students and said "bang."

The five-minute demonstration at Emmanuel College on Wednesday, two days after a student killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus, included a discussion of gun control, whether to respond to violence with violence, and the public's "celebration of victimhood," said the professor, Nicholas Winset.

During the demonstration, Winset pretended to shoot some students. Then one student pretended to shoot Winset to illustrate his point that the gunman might have been stopped had another student or faculty member been armed.

"A classroom is supposed to be a place for academic exploration," Winset, who taught financial accounting, told the Boston Herald.

He said administrators had asked the faculty to engage students on the issue. But on Friday, he got a letter saying he was fired and ordering him to stay off campus.

Winset, 37, argued that the Catholic liberal arts school was stifling free discussion by firing him, and he said the move would have a "chilling effect" on open debate.

The college issued a statement saying: "Emmanuel College has clear standards of classroom and campus conduct, and does not in any way condone the use of discriminatory or obscene language."

Student Junny Lee, 19, told The Boston Globe that most students didn't appear to find Winset's demonstration offensive.

The Virginia Tech massacre is something that needs a lot of discussion.

It is apparent the students did not try to engage the shooter or defend themselves. It is also clear that all students will need / want to discuss what took place at VT.

This senseless massacre is on the minds of the youth in the United States and should be discussed in open forums.

Here is a case where the school instructed the teachers to engage the students on the issue and then fired him because they didn't like what he said.

For the record and to put things in perspective, he told his class that more U.S. soldiers would die in Iraq in a week than students died at Virginia Tech.

He also told them more people in the United States would die in one day from Aids than died in the Virginia Tech massacre.

To me that does not diminish what happened at VT, but as a comparison serves to enlighten the students of other serious issues they need to be aware of.

If Professors are fired for that type of demonstration, then our educational system is in serious peril!!!!


I'll say it again, "God forbid" if someone somewhere out there is offended.

That is the end of part 1 of "Let Me Say This About That."


Tomorrow I will continue with a soldier's free speech comment regarding the student deaths at Virginia Tech.