Freedom of speech
Oct. 2nd, 2001 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gerbieFreedom of speech
In several discussions I have heard Americans referring to their own country as 'the best country in the world'. "At least we can give our opinion whatever happens. Freedom of speech is in our constitution", were points that were brought up more than once.
How true is this? Soon after the twin towers collapsed a list of 150 songs was distributed amongst radio stations. These songs were inappropriate apparently. And rightly so in some cases. It isn't difficult to know why people wouldn't want to hear AC/DC singing about a Highway to hell. Even Aeroplane by the RHCP and Learning to fly by Pink Floyd, even though fairly innocent songs, were on the list. Not strange either. But who decided that John Lennon's Imagine had to be on that list? Why is one of the best songs in history banned from radio stations? Could it be that the government didn't want the people to think about "all the people living life in peace"? Could it be that Bush didn't want "the world will be as one", happening sometime soon? Am I cynical if I think that by putting Lennon on the black list the real agenda of the government becomes clear.
Only a couple of days later I heard a story about the Voice of America that couldn't air an interview with one of the leaders of Afghanistan. "The people don't want to hear things like this in times like this", or something a long that way was the argument to ban the interview.
Wouldn't it be against the American constitution to ban it? What happened to freedom of speech?
In several discussions I have heard Americans referring to their own country as 'the best country in the world'. "At least we can give our opinion whatever happens. Freedom of speech is in our constitution", were points that were brought up more than once.
How true is this? Soon after the twin towers collapsed a list of 150 songs was distributed amongst radio stations. These songs were inappropriate apparently. And rightly so in some cases. It isn't difficult to know why people wouldn't want to hear AC/DC singing about a Highway to hell. Even Aeroplane by the RHCP and Learning to fly by Pink Floyd, even though fairly innocent songs, were on the list. Not strange either. But who decided that John Lennon's Imagine had to be on that list? Why is one of the best songs in history banned from radio stations? Could it be that the government didn't want the people to think about "all the people living life in peace"? Could it be that Bush didn't want "the world will be as one", happening sometime soon? Am I cynical if I think that by putting Lennon on the black list the real agenda of the government becomes clear.
Only a couple of days later I heard a story about the Voice of America that couldn't air an interview with one of the leaders of Afghanistan. "The people don't want to hear things like this in times like this", or something a long that way was the argument to ban the interview.
Wouldn't it be against the American constitution to ban it? What happened to freedom of speech?
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no subject
Date: 2001-10-02 01:55 pm (UTC)When a people are slaughtering their fellow man they lose the right to call themselves 'innocent'. It has long been considered to be right to kill a person to stop that person in the act of killing another. Wars are a bad thing innocent people get killed on all sides. But NATO wouldn't have had to be there if Milosovic wasn't in a killing mood.
Re:
Date: 2001-10-03 06:01 am (UTC)Wrong as this may be, I shan't discuss that point. But it still excludes innocent civilians. Both in Kosovo AND Beograd. But also in NY and all the other places I have mentioned in another comment here.
no subject
Date: 2001-10-03 09:09 am (UTC)I remember one of the comment an ex-GI made while touring an old Army B-17 about the Hiroshima bomb. "All Hirohito would've had to do is show one of these" (pulls white handkerchief from pocket)
Wars are not merely 'disagreements' gone wrong. They are acts of criminal violence which must be stopped by any means necessary I'm afraid. Since we don't have one of those Gort robots (from tThe Day the Earth Stood Still) to keep watch imperfect men - often with conflicting agendae - have to do the job of making the world (relatively) safe for freedom and all that.
All too often that job falls to the Americans which means that they get to set the conditions and agendae to their liking. (He who lays the gold lays the rules) If people want a safer world and don't want the US to dominate it they have to make up their minds and get organised. Freedom like Power and just about everything else isn't granted it is taken.
no subject
Date: 2001-10-03 08:25 am (UTC)What he has to say about Kosovo is that what was done there was a disgrace and a dissaster.
Yet he lost his brother and many of his best friends, his leg and his profession.
Yet HE thiks NATO just what did what they had to do...
The world is full of examples were innocent (or what ever you wanna call them...) people get hurt... Are americans less innocent than some other people somewhere else? This was just a thought anyway...I guess this is just how it goes. The answer to violence is violence and nobody is innocent. I don't know.
Don't wanna offend anyone. Just wanted to share a different perspective.
Re:
Date: 2001-10-03 08:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-10-03 08:54 am (UTC)Someone in our legal department clued me into a concept of law in which if my action directly cause another person to take a life (i.e. in self-defence) I can be held accountable for murder. For example if I hold up a beer store and the clerk fires back and shoots another customer dead, I can be charged in the murder of that customer.
The same legal concept if applied to Jugoslav war crimes would hold that Milosovic forced NATO into bombing and is as accountable to the damage NATO has done if he'd dropped the bombs himself.
no subject
Date: 2001-10-03 09:15 am (UTC)One thing my friend said wast that he wished Milosevic would instead of being in prison come down and spend even just one day with the ordinary people of Yugoslavia, to see what he has done to HIS people. Right now he has a swiming pool and a cable tv (according to my friend) when most Serbians can't afford a loaf of bread.
no subject
Date: 2001-10-03 01:26 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2001-10-03 01:53 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2001-10-04 12:50 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2001-10-03 01:43 pm (UTC)