From: NayBlaine@CS.COM
Date: Wed Aug 30 2000 - 21:54:32 CDT
In a message dated 8/30/00 4:45:33 PM Mountain Daylight Time,
CBSummer@ORBITWORLD.NET writes:
> I have no problem with stories with slants or
> conclusions I disagree with but when they
> are written to promote an agenda or evoke a
> specific response they go beyond mere news
> reporting but become editorial opinions.
Every newspaper editorializes -- including the New York Times and the
Christian Science Monitor you mention. This is what our founding fathers gave
us freedom of the press and freedom of speech to do -- to speak our minds on
political issues (not, as some believe, to publish smut). This free exchange
of political ideas helped bring us the government we have. It also is what
continues to bring change to our government -- some good changes, some not so
good.
We are rapidly giving away our freedoms to an ever expanding government in
exchange for what we perceive to be security. Just because one person is
uncomfortable with the political issues raised on the website you describe is
no reason to shun them or even worse, silence them.
This might be a good topic for a Scoutmaster's Minute. Tell your Scouts about
the importance of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Tell them how
important even unpopular ideas were in the hearts of the men who died getting
this nation started.
If you really want to be scared by our sources of information, read this:
"Americans are choosing to get less and less news from traditional network
TV. A poll in Brill's Content says 13 percent of Americans rely on David
Letterman or Jay Leno to keep them informed. And a poll by the Pew Research
Center reveals 16 percent regularly get news about political candidates from
comedy shows like 'Saturday Night Live.' " -- Gregory M. Lamb (Christian
Science Monitor)
Here are a few more pertinent quotes:
"I think it's an intellectual duty for a person who lives in a free society
to read material not only with which you agree, but with which you disagree.
Because every so often somebody you think is wrong will actually turn out to
be right." -- Tom Clancy
"Political correctness is neither political nor is it correct. It amounts to
social censorship, and the sooner we spit it out, the better." -- Jeff Cooper
"Those who would place security over liberty shall deserve, nor receive
either." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty." --
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mazzei, 1796
"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary
Americans..." -- Bill Clinton, US President, USA Today, 11 Mar 1993, p2a
"What diminishes a liberty you despise will inevitably diminish a liberty you
cherish." -- Tom Gresham
"What great cause would have been fought under the banner 'I stand for
consensus'?" -- Margaret Thatcher
"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free."
-- Charles Evans Hughes
==================
Blaine Nay
www.nay.org/quotes.htm
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