Whither Free Speech?
I've been totally buried the last week splitting my time between my real job, and some pro bono programming I've been doing to help a get out the vote campaign. This has me short on sleep and time, but I really want to say something about the pathetic state of free speech in this country. With the political conventions approaching, and the campaigns in full swing, it is time to refocus on the question of dissent in America. The Bush administration has a horrible record of using goon tactics to suppress dissent whenever the president appears in public. The Bloomberg administration in New York is trying to marginalize anti-Bush protests during the Republican National Convention, and who knows what Boston will look like next week.
While the most frequently cited defense of the illegal quashing of free expression has been security, I'm not buying it. If a president needs to be kept away from outspoken citizens as a security measure, then it is a sure sign that it is time for that president to go. After all, which is more important: the individual who happens to be in office at any given time, or the US Constitution?
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