They do these things because they hate freedom.

[richardf8]

Failing to censor poetry that that criticizes Our Great Leader (Sieg Heil!) can get an educator fired and blackballed

Children's Poetry Censored and Teachers fired in New Mexico.

I'm glad I joined the ACLU.

Comments

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Writers and editors who have spent years translating essays, films, poems, scientific articles and books by Iranian, North Korean and Sudanese authors have been warned not to do so by the U.S. Treasury Department under penalty of fine and imprisonment. Publishers and film producers are not allowed to edit works authored by writers in those nations. The Bush administration contends doing so has the effect of trading with the enemy, despite a 1988 law that exempts published materials from sanction under trade rules.


:-/ (http://www.cursoarte.hpg.ig.com.br/aulas/imagens/napoleon.jpg)

Mako

[level-head.livejournal.com]

How bizarre!

I've been aware of these incidents for years -- but the art, poetry and groups torn down and destoyed and banned have always been conservative.

This IS unusual.

===|==============/ Level Head

[makovette.livejournal.com]

On further ponderings...

We aren't told if the poems the kids wrote were inspired by the teacher encouraging the kids to write anti-Bush and anti-.gov works (IE: grinding his own axe and using the kid's as his whetstone). If that's the case, then the teacher is indeed on thin ice.

We have, not surprisingly, insufficient information here. My spin detector is flickering on that part of the article as a result...

Mako

Let us compare mythologies.

[richardf8]

I've been aware of these incidents for years -- but the art, poetry and groups torn down and destoyed and banned have always been conservative.

If I dig around, I can probably find more stories of liberal speech acts being censored. If you dig around you can probably find more stories of conservative speech being censored. But there are two things we need to remember

1) Censorship is the act of an authoritarian regime, regardless of that regime's leanings. At various times both the left and the right have partaken, and in equal numbers.

2) These stories of censorship are part of a narrative of oppression that binds people together in a spirit of opposition to the Other. Thus it is that Liberals will tell and retell this story, while Conservatives will tell and retell the story of a woman who was expelled from her class for espousing a belief that was a bit to far to the right for the comfort of her instructor. (LH - I would appreciate being reminded of the details of that one; I think I will want to use it at some point)

Bearing these two things in mind it is important to remember that it is the authoritarian (regardless of his politics) that seeks to strip us of our liberties and our privacy. It is against the authoritarian impulse that this nation is conceived, and that is why the greatest statement of patriotism (as opposed to the muddleheaded flag-waving jingoism that passes for such today) ever made was "I may not agree with what you say, but I would die defending your right to say it."

[richardf8]

Ah yes, and the spin-detector can manage a 5 second 1/4 mile too, I'll wager.

Check out my response to LH. As for spin - there hasn't been a speech act made in these United States in over 150 years that wasn't spun.

Re: Let us compare mythologies.

[makovette.livejournal.com]

it is the authoritarian (regardless of his politics) that seeks to strip us of our liberties and our privacy.

Facist and Communists alike prove this one to be true. :-/

Mako

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

thanks for alerting your LJ friends here to this incident... eep.