T-shirt Tyranny

According to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States Congress shall be prohibited from infringing on free speech. This amendment has been tested many time over the years and recently in Harrisburg, PA. According to an article published in USA Today a fifth grade male student was called to the principal’s office and told to turn a t-shirt inside out that said, “Abortion is not healthcare”

Valerie Burch, an ACLU lawyer stated in the article, “Student-speech law has developed a lot … but one thing that is still plain and clear as day is that political speech like the T-shirt … is highly protected, even within schools.” When you dissect this sentence and look at the phrase:  “political speech like the T-shirt … is highly protected, even within schools.” This phrase implies that there are different types of free speech that have varying degrees of protection under the First Amendment. This is simply not true. When you look at the phrase: “ even within schools.” again you have an example of free speech that is restricted to particular geographical boundaries. Free speech simply has no boundaries whether it is in the courthouse square, school, church, or your local tavern. Bounded free speech is simply malarkey. Free speech is simply anywhere that is practical to stand on your own two feet and open your mouth.

This entry was posted on October 15, 2009 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Alternative Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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