Thursday, September 13, 2007

Free Speech or Freedom not to Offend?

I am curious about the real support for true free speech these days given the climate of repeated instances completely counter productive to the premise that all of us "really" have free speech.

I wonder if free speech is one of those Virginia "values" that GOP legislators have been referring to lately? Apparently not.

Two other instances cry foul with regard to the silencing of an individuals right to speak freely here in Virginia. Surprisingly enough they to have taken place on the campus of State supported sites of higher education.

First, at The University of Virginia a student was prevented from displaying a sign promoting the firing of Head Cavalier Football Coach Al Groh. Apparently, The University is more concerned with firing cartoonists of the Cavalier Daily then there football coach because officials felt that the students plea violated its so-called policy on banners, signs and flags. Uh excuse me, do they not attend their own games? There are signs all over, this is college football. have you never watched Gameday on ESPN on Saturday mornings right from on campus? It was not the sign that bothered offcials but solely its message. And my friends this is either violating that students right to free speech or selective enforcement in the least. Apparently, athletic events officials have the right to remove any sign or banner they wish.

That begs the question that at a state funded University should they have the right to remove such a sign? At a private school I gather they can pass whatever kinds of rules they wish with regard to their respective colleges because they are not securing state revenues for operations. But at a "public" University which in itself belongs to the the people of Virginia how then can this stand.

I remind you that V.M.I. was forced to admit women under the law because it was as a State funded institution of higher learning so are we somehow allowing for the use of selective judgement in which liberities, rights and amendments we are going to adhere to. Did tax payer dollars support the construction of the football stadium. And what about the new basketball arena as well?

Secondand a bit of a stretch but worth pointing out is that we have the administration of Virginia Tech and its Athletic Director asking if not demanding that the Marching Virginians no longer perform the music that inspires fans to gyrate with their bodies awaiting a Hokie score.. Laughing here.

Evidently the song causes the Hokie faithful to suddenly breakdown committing rude and crude behavior in unison. You know I can't get 15 young soccer players to all listen to me at the same time so kudos to the band director if at the playing of the song he can get 15K students and fan in unison to do anything. Thats a feat in itself. This stuff is absoltely ridiculous. I can see it now as Va Tech removes 15k screaming fans from their stadium from violating this mandate if they take it upon themselves to do it all anyway.

I can't wait for SportsCenter coverage of the parade of students exiting the stadium under the assistance of the Blacksburg Police. The Athletic Director likely had little to be concerned about last week down at LSU with only one touchdown scored.....oooouch!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As Virginia moves further to the left people have come to understand that they do not value the rule of law the same way conservatives do. Everything is politicized. The fact that people are not suprised speaks volumes of this era of the breakdown of the culture we grew up in.

Anonymous said...

The Virginia we grew up in is being over run by transplanters from the North who sell their homes up there and get twice the size house here and better schools and services and then press to turn us into very liberal place they moved from. If it was so great then move back, we liked Virginia just fine befoe you got here thank you very much. Every Democrat I knew from my college years is now a Republican and every new Democrat I meet here is from CT, NY, PA its just ridiculous to see what we are becoming.