Most reprints of the first story below titled it “Politicians are stifling dissent, critics say.” When the Albuquerque Journal published the following story, they titled it “A Trend Against Dissent?” and cut it in half, eliminating 15 paragraphs, including more specific examples of this trend. One wonders if they didn’t diminish the impact of the story in the process. mjh
Politicians are stifling dissent, critics say By Steven Thomma, Knight Ridder Newspapers
It’s a crime, punishable by up to six months in prison, to “disrupt” an event guarded by the Secret Service, which includes presidential rallies. (A proposed extension of the Patriot Act now being negotiated in Congress would broaden such prohibitions to other vaguely defined national events.)
Does a T-shirt “disrupt” an event? To the political operatives who ejected people on the basis of their shirts – or ordered them arrested – a shirt can be disruptive. …
The Supreme Court ruled in 1971 that it wasn’t illegal to wear an obscene anti-Vietnam war jacket in a California courthouse, despite a state law prohibiting such messages because they might incite violence.
“The state may not, consistently with the First and 14th amendments, make the simple public display of this four-letter expletive a criminal offense,” the court said. …
This trend has a chilling effect on those who disagree with people in power, analysts say.
“The long-term consequence is a higher degree of self-censorship,” O’Neil said. “Society is the poorer when deprived of the marketplace of ideas.”
TRIBUNE COLUMN By TONY MESSENGER
[T]his isn’t a column about the war. It’s not about the president. It’s not about party politics.
This is a column about free speech.
It’s a column about dissent.
It’s a column about the right in America to wear a damn T-shirt. …
During [Gov. Matt] Blunt’s State of the State speech last month in Jefferson City [, Missouri], Capitol police got into the censorship routine on their own. Tim Shaw was one of 11 people forced to either turn their shirts inside out or leave the House gallery.
Shaw is a member of Show Me ADAPT, a disability-rights organization that has been highly critical of Blunt’s Medicaid cuts, particularly those that negatively affected folks with disabilities. …
At Blunt’s speech, Shaw and 10 other members of the group were told they couldn’t watch the governor’s address while wearing their shirts. The reason? Capitol Police Chief Todd Hurt said the shirts were considered lobbying. …
Does either party really want to create a country where no dissent is allowed? A country where all forms of free speech that get in the way of political spin are somehow seen as subversive?
The thought scares Shaw, and he chooses his words carefully.
“It is reminiscent of regimes of power in world history that are not representative of our Constitution,” Shaw says.
President George W. Bush used the word “freedom” 17 times in his speech the other night. He used it more than any other word, and yet I wonder about its place atop the president’s lexicon.