The First Amendment
Like most Americans, I'm kind of split on the whole issue of "freedom of speech." I think we should be able to express our opinions, no matter how unpopular they are.
My second year in grad school, a friend of mine and I took a little field trip to Lansing, and got pepper-gassed on the steps of the Capitol Building. See, we'd found a flyer stuffed into a book in Central's Park Library, it said that the KKK was planning a rally on the Capitol steps. Now, as much as I hate to say it, I support the Klan's right to free speech, because the First Amendment supports it... HOWEVER, I also believe I have the unalienable right to protest the Klan. So we were standing across the street, peacefully chanting something inane like "Go Away, K-K-K" when the cops pepper-gassed us.
Well, once again, some bonehead has decided to express a very unpopular opinion... Greensboro city commissioner Billy Yow is selling racist T-Shirts on the web. He says they're not racist... they just express his dissatisfaction with the NAACP.
The shirt depicts a cartoon-like character standing under a confederate flag, and urinating on the letters "NAACP."
Does he have a right to sell these shirts? Hell, yes, he does. But I'd like to see him wear one out in public. I think there are a lot of people who would exercise their own "right to expression" right upside Billy Yow's head.
Like most Americans, I'm kind of split on the whole issue of "freedom of speech." I think we should be able to express our opinions, no matter how unpopular they are.
My second year in grad school, a friend of mine and I took a little field trip to Lansing, and got pepper-gassed on the steps of the Capitol Building. See, we'd found a flyer stuffed into a book in Central's Park Library, it said that the KKK was planning a rally on the Capitol steps. Now, as much as I hate to say it, I support the Klan's right to free speech, because the First Amendment supports it... HOWEVER, I also believe I have the unalienable right to protest the Klan. So we were standing across the street, peacefully chanting something inane like "Go Away, K-K-K" when the cops pepper-gassed us.
Well, once again, some bonehead has decided to express a very unpopular opinion... Greensboro city commissioner Billy Yow is selling racist T-Shirts on the web. He says they're not racist... they just express his dissatisfaction with the NAACP.
The shirt depicts a cartoon-like character standing under a confederate flag, and urinating on the letters "NAACP."
Does he have a right to sell these shirts? Hell, yes, he does. But I'd like to see him wear one out in public. I think there are a lot of people who would exercise their own "right to expression" right upside Billy Yow's head.
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