Issues

First Amendment & Hatred
by Jocelyn Payne

We Must protect the 1st Amendment Rights of Hate Organizations on the Internet: I am a person who is extremely agitated by hatred of all kinds; however it is necessary to supercede civility and mutual respect to guarantee free speech. It is in fact dangerous not to do so.

I don't take lightly the use of slurs, epithets or misinformation intended to discredit anothers race, religion, ethnicity, or gender. Nor do I take lightly the consequences, the hurt, anger and shock. In fact I believe that if we have the power to speak out against something, and do not, we are accessories to the act.

Our liberty depends on our freedom of speech, without it all other freedoms will fall. The constitutional principle of free thought is not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom of thought that we hate. All of our freedom of speech depends on this, for it is only a matter of time before all ideas fall victim to the 'whims' of majority opinion." A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." ~Adalai Stevenson

Why is it dangerous to silence people? Because you have not converted people by silencing them. They will still be there and they will still find commrades in hate. However, we will not know they are there we will let them grow unabated. Cancer does not cease to grow because we do not know it is there. It cannot be fought without our awareness of it. The only way to fight it is to know where it is and to fight it directly.

So how do you fight hatred? The best ways to fight hatred it is to leave it out in the open. Make people aware of it. Only the people that already agree with it will not be offended. Make people aware that you do not feel that way. Let the offended parties know that they have commrades. Direct any speech you use at the ideas not the person who said them or their means of doing so. It is the thoughts that are that are the disease, the people and their speech are only carriers. Don't fight hateful people with hatred and oppressive laws or you will become diseased.

LAST NIGHT, I MET YOU (by Diego)
Bronca2k1@aol.com
Nothing but darkness surrounded me
Nothing but question invaded my mind,
Thinking bout war, thinking bout life
Trying to philosophy, but just air was in my mind.

They all of the sudden I started to cry
Cry, baby cry, cos all of us are going to die
Cry, baby cry, cos the government always lie
Cry, baby cry, cos your brain wants to fly.

Then I got angry, and I wished to die
Cos the government wouldn't open the cage
Open the cage to let my brain fly. Fly to
Speak out And denounce all their lies.

Then I was quiet and calm
Cos a revolution its on its way
A revolution to get rid of corruption
And to purify al government's pollution . . .

Then I woke up, I brushed my teeth
Put my boots on, grabbed my pen
Wrote down last night's dream, and I realized
How good it had been to meet my, mission in life.


What Is Public School For?
Public schooling was originally sold to our forefathers as a way for all citizens to become well enough informed to function effectively in a democracy. Democracy could not work, they said, if everyone didn't understand the issues well enough to cast an informed vote. Unfortunately, I believe that our public school systems no longer consider children consumers who deserve the best in order to provide for this nation's future. Instead children have become products turned out by schools for the use of business.
I would like to see a comprehensive education overhaul worked out with attention paid first to the true mission of education. Is it still to turn out people who can understand complex issues and who care enough to vote? (If so, we might consider studying recent history first and the ancient Assyrians last...have you ever noticed that recent history -which has a bearing on today's events- is often addressed in the last three weeks of school?) Or is education's mission to provide employable fodder for big business? Or is it something else altogether?....and in view of today's global economy and our changing role on the planet scene, that could be a challenging question!
After a mission statement is defined, we need to examine what a child really is. The current education system does not reflect what we know about human development, a human's ability to learn (and gender differences within that ability) or what it takes for a person to achieve their full potential (a good emotional IQ is a far better predictor of success than a genius academic IQ). If we allowed children to reach their full potential, I believe they would not only have the gift of discernment but would be less likely to misuse freedom of speech and the other freedoms as well.
A third factor in this education overhaul would involve what we as a nation really believe in. Whatever that is, it seems reasonable to be teaching it in the schools. (We might also want to define morality....when the heck was it decided that morality was religious and couldn't be taught in school? And how about manners? Why are they no longer part of our belief system?) I have trouble defining what we all hold in common as a nation, but I suspect part of the answer may be found hiding on Madison Avenue....the hooks by which we are convinced to buy seem likely to be things we hold in common. Our ability to laugh, our affection for children, our desire for adventure are some of the more positive ones. 'Scandals' to which the public remains apathetic would probably help define beliefs that we collectively don't hold....
This sort of from-the-ground-up overhaul for a mammoth institution like our education system may be unrealistic (or even flagrantly impossible), but re-thinking our education system and some of society's flaws it so faithfully mirrors is important. Freedoms can only be held by those responsible enough to use them well. If we're in danger of losing some, we'd best be looking at the deeper issues of why. Our constitution and the democracy it defines are only as good as we-the-people. Tomorrow's constitution and its democracy will be defined by they-our-children.
PMutoli@aol.com


Young Criminal
I remember back in 9th grade, I picked up a copy of SLAUGHTER-HOUSE FIVE at a garage sale and was reading it in school.  Well, my English teacher pulled me aside and said that she saluted me on my choice of reading, even though it was considered to be a banned book. (It was at this time that I learned that a lot of books could be banned). But, unfortunately, I was not going to be allowed to do a book report on the book. Much to her surprise and shock, I told her that I was reading the book not for a book report, but for my own personal pleasure...and that my book  
report was going to be on the STORY OF O.  (This book, I knew, was a big NO-NO.)
She was about to say something else, when I just smiled and she realized that I was joking. However, for the last 4 years, during Banned Book Week, I make it a point  
to read at least one banned book.
PsiQueue@aol.com



Courage Against a Ban
In 1957 there was a pall over the world. We had been instructed how to dive under our desks to counteract the flash of a nuclear bomb. Sputnik was beeping its way across the sky, seeping into the brain of every high school principal; we were all sent scurrying from humanities into science.  
In the middle of a gothic high school building in a town rushing to be first on the list of rust-belt communities there was an English teacher, who was a University of Chicago Master's degree holder.  How he got to the town I don't know.  But he gave term paper titles like "An identification of the authors of the Federalist Papers by style." And the Polish-Italian-German kids thrived.
He also said, to open each semester, "My name is Mr. O'Brian, and I'm not fair."  Pause.  Flash of terror on the faces.  "I'm not fair...don't come up and say, 'But Mr. O'Brian!  That's not fair!'  It's not fair that you should have to learn to write cogent English sentences, but if you stay here, you will.  It's not fair that you will write twice a week, once in class, but you will.  It's not fair to give 3 term papers a semester, but you will write them. And if you stick around, you are going to be able to write at a level someplace between the university of Illinois and the University of Chicago.  
Now I want to say one more thing.  The door is open.  It's always open.  If you can't or won't, I'm the chairman of the English department, and I'll be happy to transfer you down the hall, and you can spend the semester reading Emily Dickinson."
One day I was sitting in the back row.  The rules were we could talk about anything in class.  He walked in with his red signature bowtie, fondling the stubs of his crew cut.  Kinda Glenn Ford in "Blackboard Jungle."  
I said, "Mr. O'Brian, I read in the paper something about the Federal Court banning a book called ULYSSES. What's wrong with that book?"
Without skipping a beat, he said, "Nothing.  It's a classic.  A great book!  Naturally.  It's written by an Irishman!"  He laughed the insider laugh we got from him as part of our mutual conspiracy to let us in on adult things.
Anyway, the next day he walked into the class and in front of God, 28 kids,  
McCarthy and the Federal Court, threw ULYSSES across the room.  I caught it.
He said, "Judge for yourself."
I did.
What an act of courage for a small-town teacher in a repressed age.  He was not dying to be Eugene Scopes, but he faced up to the possibility.
Gsmiley123@aol.com


The decision made by the British courts that says the server was responsible for material that somebody posted on a newsgroup is really scary. Imagine what kind of restrictions AOL or some other web company would impose if they thought they were liable for what you said! ~penmite@aol.com

The Cannabis Curtain
by Paul DuBay
© 1998

Alas! An "Iron Curtain" has descended on the southern U.S. border, our laws, and our hearts. Be it true that "you will know a tree by its fruit" (Matthew 7:15-20), the results of the war on drugs merit candid analysis.

Foremost, we as a people have made illegal a proven legitimate source of food. Non-psychoactive cannabis/hemp/marijuana seeds contain dietary protien and essential oils. No valid answer exists for outlawing this food or any food. Untold millions already suffer starvation. Yet, unashamedly, we persist. Other results include:

~the U.S. border and all 50 states becoming militarized war zones and police states, glorified with more and more police television shows and news spots

~escalation of official corruption and narco-terrorism on an unprecedented global level

~an estimated $150 billion spent since 1988, and yet the major "dangerous/undesirable" drugs are as plentiful as ever

~our building prisons on a scale comparable to Nazi Germany to send the world the clearest message of all, "The land of the free has the highest imprisoment rate on the planet."

~denying medicine (cannabis) to the ill among us, persecuting and arresting those who seek such medication

~emergence of a multi-billion dollar "underground economy" that expands with each U.S. domestic and international demand for increased Draconian sanctions

~prosecutors, along with drug-sniffing dogs, subverting the powers of judge and jury via mandatory minimum sentencing

~asset forfeiture, even without conviction of a crime, carrion for bureaucratic coffers and others with vested interest

~warrantless searches, kicking down people's doors, beating them and shooting them in their own homes

~mutitudes judged by analysis of their urine instead of the content of their character due to "guilty until proven innocent" drug testing. This intrusive attitude respects no boundaries.

~continued use of Drug Abuse Resistance Eduation (D.A.R.E.) when every reputable research study concludes the D.A.R.E. has failed to reduce or even stem teen drug use.

Who are the perpetrators of such chaos? Pretender public servants and their legions who destroy personal freedoms and yet expect maintained funding from the toil of U.S. taxpayers. Who are the victims? Gender, race, age, socio-economic status, personal beliefs and sexual orientation are irrelevant - drug-free or not, no one is exempt from the effects of this oppressive political atmosphere. They say we are doing this to keep kids and America safe from drugs? Cries of "security" and "law and order" are the incessant bellowings of oppressors. Which is more adverse to health - consuming cannabinoids, or arrest, trial, asset forfeiture, and time in prison? The only known deaths caused by marijuana have been at the hands of those executing mean-spirited public policy.

At best this war on drugs, the longest war in U.S. history, is a tragic mistake. At worst, it expemplifies hatred and intolerance. Imprisoning our neighbors for what they choose to put in their bodies is akin to doing so for what they choose to put intheir minds. Such actions epitomize institutionalized violence and chemical statism, not, "love thy neighbor."

Outlaw a food that can grow almost anywhere on the planet? Criminalize large segments of the national and international populations? Systematically withhold a medicine and arrest the sick? The drug war fails every litmus test for legitimacy, and it need not continue. With redeemed hearts, U.S. citizens are voting to dispel the drug war "iron curtain" and its support systems on to overdue obsolescence.