Freedom of Speech

Do we have freedom of speech? Our constitution guarantees us freedom of speech with the first amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression, which was ratified 12/15/1791. It states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Our founding fathers realized that the one thing that our new country could provide was to give people the ability to live their lives in a manner that was free from persecution for their beliefs. For example the early members of the Religious Society of Friends, were tortured and harassed for believing and practicing their religious beliefs in their homeland of England.

However, I sometimes believe we take this right a little too far. The most recent situation of the teacher in Bucks County caught blogging about her students is case in point. Did she really have the right to say all those things under this amendment? Or are we harnessed by our employers to watch our words carefully for fear of retaliation and expulsion from our places of employment. My personal belief is that we are somewhat restricted based on the potential ramifications our words can realize. Even though she has the right to say what she wants she represents her school – her place of employment – and as such should have been mindful of how others might think of the school. If she had blogged in such a way to be totally anonymous, then maybe she could have vented all she wanted and not caused such a fury.

This incident reminds me of a story I just finished reading; The Help by Kathryn Stockett (a great book IMHO). Back in Mississippi during the 1960s a black person could be beaten to death for interacting with a white person. The maids in this story were given the opportunity to possibly turn these unspoken rules around if they would only speak up and tell stories about their experiences in a book. At first they were reluctant to do so for fear they would be fired, or worse, beaten for the stories. But after a while, they began to come forward one after another to allow the person compiling the stories to submit the manuscript. However the author, a white woman, did not put her name to the title because she too was fearful of retribution due to her involvement with the maids. They had the right but there were potential consequences if they exercised that right to its fullest.

So the question remains. Do we have full freedom of speech? Freedom denotes the ability along with the absence of consequences. Until our society is willing to accept without agreement, I believe we don’t.

New Beginning

Last night one of my friends became a Councilperson in the town where I live.  There was a vacancy and she was appointed to complete the term.  I really wish her the best and know she will be a great asset to the board.  She is intelligent, has a real grasp on that the issues are in the town, and has proven that she is a person who can get things done. 

I was there, in her shoes a few years ago.  As a council member I represented a different portion of town, and the issues my constituents had are slightly different that the ones her district has.  But we are all living in the same town and there are certain issues that are universal. 

Not that I can see this ever happening to my friend, but it got me thinking about why a person would go into public service.  I wouldn’t exactly say that being a council member was fun, and there was certainly no money in it.  But it was very rewarding.  There were times when I was totally insane with things to do, but most of the time I enjoyed doing the job. 

The really fun part of it was the notoriety that came from being a public servant in a small town.  I can see that for some people, being famous even in a small town can really go to their head.  I know firsthand that sometimes you get a feeling that there is nothing that you can’t do, whether it’s right or wrong. 

Take for example a councilmember who served with me who ended up being arrested for insurance fraud and tax evasion.  I mean being a council member is not like being the president, but this person felt he was so above the law because of his position that he wouldn’t get caught.  He engaged in so many bad things and would vehemently deny all of it when confronted puffing up his chest as if to say, “I am a council person, how dare you accuse me of such actions!”

Corruption happens, and it happens so often that there are many websites that talk about the corrupt and dangerous political leaders.  One such site talks about the top 10 corrupt politicians in America.  On the site, they mention they could have done 100, but they picked just 10.  That’s saying something right there.  

That all being said, there are plenty of excellent public servants, on every level who are excellent at what they do and work very hard to improve their districts.  Just as easily as you can find websites devoted to spelling out all the bad things politicians do, there are a few that laud the great ones; Churchill, Sir Winston, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Kennedy, John F. JFK just to name a few.  Those are the ones we hear about often.  It behooves us to study them and identify the attitudes, behaviors, careers, decisions, and effect of leaders who have changed the world.  These are the kinds of public servants who haven’t let the notoriety go to their head. I know my friend will be one of those excellent public servants.

Fear

The shooting in Arizona has left me sad and frustrated. I have been grapping over the issues of gun rights for a long time. I have generally been on the side of sensible gun rights feeling that since the situation is out of hand in most cases, gun owners have to take sacrifices. The rest of us do. For example, just because I feel like, and am capable of, driving my car at excessive speeds, I have to give up that desire to save lives of those around me. Gun owners should expect no less.


Today I had a conversation with a friend of mine who is a gun owner and very adamant that people should be able to defend themselves in whatever manner they feel. It is one of the few things we disagree on. However he and my son for that matter believe that if everyone was armed, the violence would be less. I don’t agree basically because the American culture is by and large based on fear and that is why we have such diverse discussions about gun control.

Michael Moore pointed it out very well in his movie “Bowling for Columbine”. He took the position that Canada has more guns per person than we do, yet has less violence and people feel less of a need to defend themselves and their possessions. This is primarily because of our culture and wonderfully discussed in the book The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things [Paperback] by Barry Glassner. I strongly recommend this book as the author contends that out worries about all manner of things are totally blown out of proportion by a mass media. We are a nation of fear-mongers.

Dreaded Winter Colds

Wow, it’s been several months since I posted last.  I have been very busy over the summer, and I know it’s not any excuse, but I apologize.

Before Christmas I got sick with a cold that was going around that has a very bad cough.  A coworker told me of a natural remedy to help your body fight the virus.  It is called Oil of Oregano and it works very well.  I was able to get over the cold relatively quickly, except I had a nagging cough that has lasted for several weeks.

Today the cough got worse and the first thing I went to was the oil.  I must warn you that this stuff, which you take three drops twice a day and it tastes HORRIBLE.  I added Slippery Elm oil as well as doing Echinacea and Golden Seal tea several times a day, and using Zicam tablets every four hours.  The treatment I devised for myself worked very well, so starting today I started the regime to nip this think in the bud. 

Give it a try the next time you feel yourself coming down with a cold.

Technology…ain’t it wonderful

A friend of mine experienced a robbery the other day. He and his roommate were asleep and some guys came in and stole most of their electronic equipment. They took his iPhone, his computer, his TV and some other things. He figured it must have been two guys because it had to be more than one to carry away his TV.

The following day, when he woke up he realized what had happened and immediately called the police. He and his roommate went to the police station and because he knew his phone has a tracking device on it, engaged it and directed the police right to where the GPS told it the phone was. But apparently that wasn’t enough to get a warrant. Instead the police knocked on the door and radioed in that they were there and the roommate called my friend’s phone. The name of the roommate showed in the display and it was enough for the police to make the arrest. My friend got all of his possessions back.

I just love this story. Not only did they recover all the stolen items, but they caught the guys red handed. It was all because he had thought enough to download an application to his phone to track it in the event it was lost. It is also because technology has gotten to the point where this is all possible, and it is also because crime is getting harder and harder to commit. You will be caught.

Graffiti

Saturday morning was beautiful. It had no humidity, a slight breeze and a beautiful blue sky. It would have been a perfect day to ride my bike for a long trip of about 30 miles. Instead my husband and I were helping an elderly neighbor who had spray paint all over her garage.


It happened Thursday night, or perhaps early Friday morning. Someone decided that they would spray paint their tag over six properties in the rear of our property. Fortunately, they did not get our wooden fence, but they got the stone walls of two separate garages, a vinyl fence, the vinyl siding of a garage, the side of a small camper, and the aluminum door of a garage. There were two designs on these properties and they have been seen elsewhere in the municipality.

The police are working on it, but I doubt they are going to identify who it is. Graffiti “artists” are very difficult to track down. Unless the police knows the tag and can identify it with someone, they cannot make an arrest. So we are left with the possibility of this person, or persons, doing it again.

My husband and I found a product online called Mostenbocker Lift Off #4. The company makes several types of removers and this chemical is for spray paint. A twenty-two ounce spray bottle is around $8 at Home Depot. We bought three bottles. We also borrowed a pressure washer from a friend and tried several things as well as the Lift Off. The product did fairly well on the smooth vinyl fence, but on the vinyl siding of the garage, which is textured to look like wood, no so much. The paint was caught in the ridges that resemble wood grain and even with repeated scrubbing with a steel wool pad, did not come off easily. We tried other things too; gasoline, brake cleaner, and of course straight water from the pressure washer. We did get about 80% off, but it does not look like it did originally.

The municipality has a somewhat unusual policy which is to fine the property owner if they do not remove the graffiti in a timely manner. There are other cities, like San Diego, who have a program to help eradiate graffiti. “The City of San Diego spends more than $1 million each year on graffiti abatement education and enforcement. This amount does not include the millions more spent by other public agencies, utility companies, and private property owners to remove graffiti from their properties. Nationwide, the American public spends nearly $12 billion each year to fight graffiti.” They have a program called the Paint and Materials Exchange program. “The City of San Diego operates a Paint and Materials Exchange Bank in the Chollas View area where citizens can obtain free recycled paint in limited colors for graffiti removal..”
It is my intention to start a similar program in my municipality to help combat the problem. I don’t like the fact that we, the property owner, who is the victim of vandalism, would have to be fined with a citation for not removing the graffiti. I know that when the vandal is caught they have to pay restitution, but the chances of the police identifying the person and making the arrest is remote, and if that does indeed happen, it could take years and by that time, the property owner may have moved away. The way to stop the graffiti is to cover it over as soon as it happens so that the tag does not get noticed. The objective of tagging is peer recognition: the tagger gains more notoriety the longer the tag is "up."

By doing this I hope that we will lessen the problem and improve the quality of life in our town.

Good Parents; Bad Seed

I know it's been a really long time, but I hope you will accept my apologies for staying away. 

Dr. Richard A. Friedman is a professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan. A recent article of his appears in the New York Times today entitled, “Accepting That Good Parents May Plant Bad Seeds”. His article ends with “For better or worse, parents have limited power to influence their children. That is why they should not be so fast to take all the blame — or credit — for everything that their children become.

For the last 7 years, I have been feeling so responsible for the person my son has become. Since he was 13, he has gotten worse and worse, getting in trouble time and again, has dropped out of school, and now rejected us and moved out of the house. Granted, he is at the age that he should be on his own, but he has not become a responsible adult in our eyes. My husband, and many of our friends, has told me over and over again that it is not my fault. But as a mother, I feel bad that I have brought forth this person and let him loose in the world.

I suppose my heart will always be heavy with sadness for the direction my son has chosen, but my head is trying to grapple with the sentiment expressed by Dr. Friedman. His article is helpful toward tackling my feelings of incompetence and depression and I suppose in time as I see my son improving with maturity (a positive wish), those feelings will subside. I suppose it’s jealousy plain and simple. I want to have what my friends have; successful children who make them proud.