Friday, May 21, 2004

Censored, For Your Protection

It'd be nice if people would actually read once in a while. More specifically, if we'd read the document that our nation was founded upon. Even more specifically, the part that was added so that they could get enough signatures. You remember, right? The Bill of Rights? The first ten amendments? To be overly blatant, the very first amendment? If you don't know what I'm talking about, perhaps you have graduated or will graduate from one of our nation's finest public schools.

Seems some jackass who probably barely made it through the system and then probably went on to pursue a post-secondary degree in physical education is making the decision that a very basic tenet of maintaining democratic principles in our nation is not applicable within the halls of the school that he presides over. The principal has decided that poetry is not allowed at his school because of a student poem that criticized the war in Iraq and the "No Child Left Behind" policy of the current US administration. I'm not saying I agree with the girl, I don't even know what she wrote and I'm not against the war, but give me a break! I guess we should amend the Constitution to read "free speech unless Gary Tripp, high school principal, doesn't like it."

Small minds running the exact institutions of learning that are supposed to be contributing to making people not small-minded? Even as I look at the schools in my area, the same types of people are running the majority of the schools. I don't understand. I guess it all comes down to where you have friends. Or perhaps you were a state championship winning coach or something. Who knows?

I'd be honored if I weren't offered a renewal contract from the likes of Gary Tripp.

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