Imagine if you could be in a world where you could bearrested for simply saying that you think that it’s OK for women to have the rightto vote or saying that slavery was a horrible crime committed againstsociety.
Imagine a society were you can’t voice your opinion,didn’t have the right to question things that happened in your community oressentially had no voice in the world around you.
I’m sure that many of you would agree that this wouldbe horrible and yet just recently we had a group of students representing acertain organization enter our office requesting censorship.
In the recent weeks, we have been bombarded with the FederalCommunication Commission’s attempt to sanction what they consider decent, fromthe five-second delays to morning deejays’ being put off the air, ourgovernment wants to tell us what we can and can’t watch and listen.
Well I don’t believe that.
What I do believe is that freedom of speech is one ofthe most important rights that we have. Freedom of speech allows us to check the powers that be.
SUBR Chancellor Edward R. Jackson has to give pressconferences on the state of Southern affairs before someone tells the incorrectstory.
Because of the First Amendment, President Bush has toanswer whether he did all he could to protect America from terrorism.
We live in a country where we can say anything aslong as it does not impede on the rights of others. Because of that right, youmight have to hear something that you might not agree with.
That’s the beautiful thing about the FirstAmendment-if you don’t agree, you have right to tell people how you feel.
The same right that allows us to say the things wesay in The DIGEST is the same right that allows you to rip up copies of yourstudent newspaper at a probate show.
The DIGEST gives us the opportunity to report newsfrom a student’s perspective and all students are encouraged to write for thepaper.
Instead of campaigning for us to stop writing ouropinions in these pages, write a letter to the editor and have your picture onthe page next to it. If someonewas allowed to censor The DIGEST, imagine what you may not ever hearabout.
The Office of Student Media tries hard to givestudents a voice in the Jaguar Nation, so hard that we hope to establish amagazine that will give us an opportunity to explore the lifestyles of ourstudents and also a literary review that would publish student authorsworks.
The right to say what we feel brought attention toslavery, women’s rights and issues concerning civil justice. Imagine if we had no voice at all.
