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The word malaria comes from the words mal and aria, which means bad air. This derives from the old days when it was thought that all diseases are caused by bad, or dirty air. |
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The Censorship Epidemic
Posted on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 (CDT) by Isis
 Several weeks ago, a university professor was fired. Ward Churchill, who taught for more than twenty years at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was dismissed for an essay he wrote, shortly after 9/11, which expressed controversial views about 9/11. University of Colorado Interim Chancellor, Phil DiStefano, decided to terminate Ward Churchill for what he termed "academic misconduct."
Churchill is not the only academic to face dismissal, or suspension, for espousing a viewpoint that is considered heretical, or anathema. But, the larger issue here is not academic freedom; the larger issue is censorship, and the insidious practice of this government to outlaw ideas, and convert communication into contraband.
What's more, it's not just what educators write, or talk about that has come under increasing surveillance. If it were up to some conservative Christian groups in California, New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, Harry Potter would be banned, and removed from classrooms, and school libraries on the grounds that the books promote interest in "the occult." (NCAC) Some other titles that made the top ten 2006 banned books list include The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, for its sexual content, And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson, for homosexuality, The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier, for sexual content, and Scary Stories, by Alvin Schwartz, for the occult, and satanism.
When they
fire academics for essays they write which espouse contrarian, and
unorthodox views, university chancellors demonstrate the same mindset
that prohibits modern classics from being read by students inour public
schools. This is a disgrace just as it is a disgrace that we have
so-called "free speech zones" in which demonstrators may protest this
president, and citizens being arrested for wearing anti-Bush teeshirts.
Arguably, an even bigger disgrace is the fact that Paris Hilton got
more coverage than the controversy over Harry Potter, or Ward
Churchill. This administration has managed to put a silencer on the
press.
Last weekend, when Pearl
Jam performed one of its songs, AT&T chose to turn the volume down
when lead singer, Eddie Vedder's lyrics included some disparaging
statements about President Bush. This same telecommunications giant
elected to hand over private telephone records to the government, and
thanks to recent measures passed by Congress, they will be able to do
so with impunity for perpuity, or until Congress enacts measures to
prevent them from doing so. It is flat out unacceptable for any lyric
to be muted out during a concert because it is derogatory just as it is
flat out unacceptable that a college educator face expulsion for
expressing dissenting views of a national tragedy, however repugnant
those views are.
It is equally
unconscionable that the F.C.C. be allowed to issue "public decency"
fines to networks for so-called wardrobe malfunctions, and the use of
obscenity when no fines are issued to administration officials, like
the attorney-general and others, who have lied under oath about
warrantless surveillance of civilians, as well as illusory, and elusive
weapons of mass destruction.
In late July, members of
the Senate launched a bipartisan campaign for "filtering, and
monitoring technologies" on the Internet on the grounds that they wish
to protect children from sexual predators, and child pornography.
Conspicuously absent from these hearings were members of civil
liberties' groups who were not invited. (Press Esc) While the measures
under consideration are meant to target children, and increase parental
controls, there is no doubt that these technologies will set an
infrastructure in place which may be used to monitor and filter
Internet users, of all ages, in future. The possible ramifications to
the First Amendment are staggering, and should these filtering
measures, which are supported by Democrats and Republicans alike, pass,
they will make the tweaking of FISA laws look like a walk in the park
by comparison.
At stake here is a
complacent, and apathetic public that is allowing itself to be
railroaded, and manipulated by a top-heavy, power-hungry, radical
right, neo-conservative Christian government which has had phenomenal
success in regulating what we see, hear, as well as discuss in our
college, and public school, classrooms. And, by extension, in our movie
theatres, bookstores, and T.V.s too. The fact that a professor was
fired without much fanfare, or the kind of media focus given to six men
trapped in a midwest mine, or the collapse of a bridge, speaks to the
values, and lack of perspective, which enables the same kind of Salem
Bay mentality which led to previous witchhunts, and cries of heresy.
Had Cryonics existed at the time of Senator Joe McCarthy's demise, and
had he requested to be defrosted in Washington, D.C., in the year 2007,
rest assured that he would feel perfectly at home there.
There is a cancer in the
body politic that has metastasized, and has now spread to our
classrooms, book shelves, television screens, newspapers, and public
libraries. As with racism, it is not the overt display of prejudice
that poses the gravest threat, but the more subtle, and subliminal,
often unseen, forms of prejudice. That we can live side by side with
space travel, and instant communications with those who live 9,000
miles away and, at the same time, countenance the kind of mind policing
that results in silencing dissenting writings as heretical, and occult
smacks of ethical leprosy. How can we not be impacted by what we are
not allowed to say, or see, as well as what we stop ourselves from
saying, and seeing.
Passivity, and acceptance,
will prove to be our undoing. In the words of great Welsh poet, Dylan
Thomas, we must not "go gentle into that night," but "rage, rage,
against the dying of the light."
Copyright: The Huffington Post
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Re: The Censorship Epidemic
by fox20000 on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 (CDT)
(User Info | Send a Message) | Ward Churchill was not fired for his viewpoint, but was fired for falsifying his background information as to his qualifications.
Also AT&T did not censor Pearl Jam, that was done by the contractor at the concert without any direction of AT&T.
Please consider the bias of Ms Hufington to slant her opinions with only one side of a story and not be bothered with facts.
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Re: The Censorship Epidemic (Score: 1)
by on Thursday, August 16, 2007 (CDT)
(User Info | Send a Message) http://wakingsleep13.livejournal.com | Are you sure about that?
Whether or not what you say is indeed fact, the truth is the spokespeople for both AT&T and the University of Colorado have their own agendas as well, and will report them with as much slant and bias as those from the other side of the coin.
So how can we really believe anything to be truth or fact, unless we ourselves are there to experience it directly?
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Re: The Censorship Epidemic
by annubis on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 (CDT)
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Uuummmm.....The irony of it all! I have seen many sites censor comments from subscribers/members because the administer or their alternates did not agree with the postings. So much for free speech even on the net. It appears that no matter where you are, if you criticize, although the words may have a ring of truth to them, they are never heard/read or seen. If you are not in "lockstep" with their views (for we know they are the experts), you become banished. Or better yet: If you sound a bit more intellegent/articulate, they become intimidated instead of utilizing the others abilities, knowledge and skills. Oh well....such is life! |
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