To the Republic, for Which it Stands

On the day that our homeroom T.V. was finally fixed and the sound revitalized, I stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance with the T.V. and noticed that I was one of three others who did this, including the teacher.  My homeroom has eighteen students, yet only a sixth of them stood.  Half of the ones that were seated were plugged into their Crackberries, oblivious to their surroundings.  I thought to myself, this is pathetic.  And sad.  And wrong.  I completely understand why some people choose not to say the pledge.  Several Americans don't like what's going on in their country today or they don't support current governmental policies, so they refuse to say the pledge as a form of protest.  But at least have some respect for this country and stand for the pledge!  You don't have to recite it, but at least stand.

I have a feeling that a majority of Americans take our freedoms for granted.  I am proud to say that the United States of America is the most prosperous nation known to man, and I am proud to say that I am an American citizen.  It was almost a miracle how this country came about.  When this country was born, a lot of politicians called it "The Great Experiment."  For the first time in the history of man, a system was set up so that no one person could have too much political power.  Men like Thomas Jefferson were aware that political power was addicting, and men that acquire it take severe advantage of it.  Not only that, the citizens of this system were granted freedoms that no other country during that time had permitted.  Therefore, I believe every American citizen should at least stand to honor those principles.  So when I stand to recite the pledge while five-sixths of my class is sitting, I can't help but think about how ignorant they might be.

Speech Codes?

After reading Jim Crow on Fraternity Row  and glancing at the slideshow  pictures, you begin to realize that there are still tons of crazy racist bastards out there.  Clearly, the acts they perform at these "Ghetto Parties" are discriminatory innuendos, stereotypes and oblivious racism towards blacks.  But should these acts be prohibited on the college campus?  No, I believe, as long as they are not encroaching on anybody's property.  It is protected under the First Amendment, freedom of speech.  Let everyone see these bigots committing their acts of racism; let everyone judge them as much as they want.  And when news articles about these people pop up in the papers, let's see how their reputations fare.  I'm sure CEOs would love to hire bigots as their employees.

I also did some research on UW - Madison's speech codes, the college I'm most interested in.  Apparently, their speech codes are incredibly strict, prohibiting sexism, harassment, and the like.  If the university had a "Ghetto Party" incident like the one at Auburn University, the people at that party would end up in huge trouble.  The fact that UW - Madison has these strict speech codes does not change my view of the school; it just somewhat disappoints me.  I'm not implying that I do any of those discriminatory actions; I am not prejudice.  I'm just disappointed that the university is following that large crowd, infringing on the protected rights of the First Amendment.  That is why I support FIRE - Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - they believe that the individual has the right to speak their mind, which is the basis of the First Amendment.  This country was founded with the notion of freedom, which is something so novel and incredible, and universities like UW - Madison are crushing this notion via the establishment of speech codes.  If you happened to be offended by anyone's free speech, then simply avoid them and call the police if they begin to encroach on your property.  It's as simple as that.  We can't have authorities telling us, the individuals, what we can and cannot say.

    

On the Issue of Flag Burning.

For the past week in class, we have analyzed the issue of flag burning as a way to protest and whether or not it should be allowed in the United States.  The issue goes all the way back to the Texas v. Johnson case of 1989, where a man was prosecuted for burning the flag as a protest of the re-nomination of Ronald Reagan.  One side says, Americans should be able to burn the flag because there is no specific law in the Constitution stating that it is prohibited.  Others say that the American Flag is a symbol of freedom embodied in America, and to burn the flag is an invitation to violence.  Today, it is not prohibited to burn the flag.

As terrible as burning the American flag is, I believe that yes, if somebody for some reason wants to burn an American flag, they can go ahead and do it.  Now, I'm not promoting the burning of the flag, I'm saying that people should not get in trouble for it.  There are already consequences to burning the flag.  If someone in your neighborhood were burning an American flag as a way to protest, most people will think of him/her as a twisted person and avoid him/her.  So, go nuts, burn the flag if you'd like, but it will probably be more of a detriment than a benefit and people will have negative opinions of you.

10 Years.

For the past three days in class, we watched a documentary on 9/11 that showed extremely rare footage of the attack and what the firefighters had to go through inside the burning buildings.  In any fictitious movie, you sometimes are desensitized by violence and explosions, but 9/11 was the real deal, and it's terrifying to watch real destruction.  I cannot imagine the extent of terror the workers had in those moments.  At the end of the documentary was a slide show of a seemingly endless amount of photos of firemen that died on 9/11.  Those deaths were the product of pure evil; it is truly a tragedy.


After browsing through some 9/11 articles, I found an intriguing piece of writing by Jeffrey Goldberg titled, "The Real Meaning of 9/11."  In his essay, Goldberg asserts that "murder is the real meaning of 9/11."  I could not agree more.  The extremists involved in the plot used their specific beliefs in Islam to obscure their hatred for humanity.  Goldberg makes an assertion near the end of his writing that caught my eye.  He says, "...simply because al Qaeda represents one strain of thought in Islam does not mean it represents all strains of thought. Islam, like any great and complicated religion, contains a thousand streams."  I feel that a lot of Americans out there have the mindset that what the extremists believe is the only strain of thought in Islam; I can't help but think that as well.  But Goldberg does make a good point; there are thousands of ways to interpret Islam, and only one of the thousand ways is the extremists'.  

It's difficult to fathom that ten years ago on this day, I was waiting at the bus stop with my brother Alec, and his friend Jeremy came running down the street to tell us that planes crashed into buildings.  I never understood the significance of it at the time because I was only seven years old, and it took several more years to finally understand.  Though 9/11 was ten years ago, it feels like yesterday because of its impact on America.  September 11, 2001 undisputedly and significantly changed the American way of life.  On this day, remember the brave men and women whose lives were taken by the acts of evil.  God Bless America.

Student's Rights?

There's been a lot of hype about students' rights to free speech and whether or not they should be restricted or broadened.  I personally believe that things are fine the way they are.  I mean, it's up to the school to decide how restricted students' free speech is, but most of them do a decent job already.  If a student's expression of free speech encroaches on the education aspect of school, so much that it distracts the teacher, then that free speech should be restricted.  The purpose of school is to mature physically, socially, and most importantly, mentally; when something hampers the students' maturity or teachers' delivery of maturity to the students, that something should be eliminated.  It is as simple as that. 

You may ask, what counts as encroachment on the education process?  To what extent may something be considered encroachment?  In the end, it is the teacher that decides.  Students may say to the teacher that something happens to be offensive to them, but it is up to the teacher to decide whether or not that form of free speech should be removed from the classroom environment.  There have been a few court cases relating to this, but so far, I think schools are capable of finding that line of encroachment.  The line is in different places for every school.