Political Expression on the Job
One lady is fired for a Kerry bumper sticker on he car. One is suspended and transferred for a portrait of Bush in her English classroom.
No time to go into the she-said/they said details. Suffice it to say I wasn't there so all I have to go on is what the media says anyone said about it. In her own interview (obviously self-serving) the teacher did no wrong. In the school's side (not-so-obviously self-serving, maybe, but still self-serving) she was channeling Pat Robertson.
When I was in school (and Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth :? ) politics was completely fair game in school. Nixon. Vietnam. The Black Panthers. LBJ. Kent State. The Draft. In gym and in math it didn't necessarily show up on posters, but students might ask about it and get an answer, and in English class we would be asked to write about how we felt about the draft (all us guys were sweating it then) or draft dodgers, etc.
Depending on which version of facts anyone decides to believe (among those of us who were not there and can only depend on the web and other media), the bumper-sticker lady and the presidential portrait lady got similarly shafted for similarly flaunting their views. Personally, expression on my personal vehicle is more of a personal expression issue to me, but I also grew up in a time when political discourse in school was not a church v. state issue as it is today.
Anyone who gets fired, suspended or harassed for expressing their political views anywhere is being deprived of free speech, and THAT is un-American as hell. Well, it USED to be un-American.
Nowadays, it's just how the Other Side (on BOTH sides) fight back when they have little of substance with which to reply.
I am not defending the Bushie, or attacking the Kerryie ... just trying to point out that the mud is slinging both ways. Being able to see that it is NOT unilateral bias out there is the first step to recognizing how badly the system needs an overhaul ... and the nation needs a good political "high colonic."
No time to go into the she-said/they said details. Suffice it to say I wasn't there so all I have to go on is what the media says anyone said about it. In her own interview (obviously self-serving) the teacher did no wrong. In the school's side (not-so-obviously self-serving, maybe, but still self-serving) she was channeling Pat Robertson.
When I was in school (and Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth :? ) politics was completely fair game in school. Nixon. Vietnam. The Black Panthers. LBJ. Kent State. The Draft. In gym and in math it didn't necessarily show up on posters, but students might ask about it and get an answer, and in English class we would be asked to write about how we felt about the draft (all us guys were sweating it then) or draft dodgers, etc.
Depending on which version of facts anyone decides to believe (among those of us who were not there and can only depend on the web and other media), the bumper-sticker lady and the presidential portrait lady got similarly shafted for similarly flaunting their views. Personally, expression on my personal vehicle is more of a personal expression issue to me, but I also grew up in a time when political discourse in school was not a church v. state issue as it is today.
Anyone who gets fired, suspended or harassed for expressing their political views anywhere is being deprived of free speech, and THAT is un-American as hell. Well, it USED to be un-American.
Nowadays, it's just how the Other Side (on BOTH sides) fight back when they have little of substance with which to reply.
I am not defending the Bushie, or attacking the Kerryie ... just trying to point out that the mud is slinging both ways. Being able to see that it is NOT unilateral bias out there is the first step to recognizing how badly the system needs an overhaul ... and the nation needs a good political "high colonic."
posted by Author | 5:42 AM
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