ARE SCHOOLS DESTROYING FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

THE SCHOOLS ARE DESTROYING FREEDOM OF SPEECH

by John W. Whitehead

Mario Savio's delivered his infamous "Bodies Upon the Gears" speech
to a student movement fighting for free speech here on UC Berkeley's campus.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mariosaviosproulhallsitin.htm

At the time Mario Savio articulated the fear existing about speaking publicly against the federal government.

Whitehead, a founder of The Rutherford Institute, a non-profit organization to defend civil liberties and human rights, is well qualified to quote the Constitution.  He thinks that schools are slowly undermining student's rights specified in the Bill of Rights.

The major flaw in this article is that Whitehead did not specify whether his examples took place in a public or private high school.  Idealistically public schools are free to dismiss any form of religious content in a public forum.  Church and State separation is one of the foundations in which we can think and worship without interference forced upon us.

THE WAYS WE LIE

THE WAYS WE LIE

By Stephanie Ericsson

Ericsson says that we are all liars; and that there are different types of liars.

1. 

The greatest con artists take YOU in to their confidence; they get YOU to believe that they trust YOU.  For example, Will you help me find my car keys? I'm sure I lost them in the parking lot!

 2.
Question authority.

3.
Fact-check with reliable sources, but keep in mind that reliable sources can be misinformed or liars with their own agenda.

4,
Voicing a mistrust of "the facts" when everyone else is comfortable with them leads away from group think.  It is okay to be unpopular.

5.
When adults dismiss their child's thoughts and feelings they are teaching that child not to trust their own thoughts and feelings.  The child's wish for approval forces her to realign herself with her parents' lies instead of what her senses and observations tell her.  Parents' fail to realize they are teaching their child to mistrust herself, which may cause permanent damage to her mental processes.  In her late teens to the age of 35 years-old she may develop a chronic life-threatening mental illness we know as schizophrenia: an inability to recognize the reality in the world around her.

COMMUNICATION KEY TO EGYPT'S UPRISING

 

“Communication Key to Egypt’s Uprising,”
by Hany Rashwan

Google, Facebook and Twitter are credited as the organizing tool revolutionaries used to overthrow the Egyptian dictatorship.  The reader must connect the dots to realize that a Middle-Eastern Google executive was the one who led the charge against the government using Facebook.

Rashwan gets goose bumps when he thinks about a 30 year-old male bringing down a government from an air-conditioned office.

    

LET THE ZOO'S ELEPHANTS GO

“Let the Zoo’s Elephants Go” 
by Les Schobert

Elephants are the largest creatures that walk our planet,

yet tiny humans can capture, transport and then force them into tiny enclosures

despite the fact that their typical environment is 1000 square miles.

Our National Zoo is a disgrace without oversight; it is committing a sin keeping elephants in an inhumane environment, and then murdering them when the elephants lose their will to live.

This raises a bigger question:

Does any zoo in the world have an authority overseeing the treatment of wild creatures that are so homesick for an environment they will never see again that they lose their will to live?