Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Freedom of Speech? Yeah right!


I have had a incident happen in one of my classes. I have a teacher who cusses and one day he let a boy play a cd he had made. The boy said that if the words offended anyone to speak up. I told them that I would be offended and that I would go out in the hall. It bothered me so much that I wrote a email to the teacher and told him that I was offended by all of the fowl language that was used in the classroom by classmates and him. So today as I am walking to class the teacher walks up to me and tells me that he and the boy are going to apologize to the class. The teacher makes his remarks about being irresponsible and the other guy gets up and says "I am sorry if I offended anyone BUT (I held my breath here) I feel like I wasn't in the wrong. I told you what words were going to be in the song and that one girl (that would be me) got up and left." Then everyone starts to yell "First Amendment" and "Freedom of speech" The whole time I am thinking " Good grief, why do I feel like I am at the Salem Whitch trials all of a sudden?" Then I started to think, everyone is so big into freedom of speech, but what they don't realize is that freedom of speech is only important to them when everybody agrees with them. It is only when someone stands against the majority that "freedom of speech" is thrown in. I agree, I used freedom of speech! Though I do feel that as I was leaving everyone was saying "Witch, witch, witch!" Oh well! God was there with me and I survived!!!

4 comments:

Rachel said...

I hate that happened to you. Usually, when we stand up for something we believe in, we are persecuted by other people. Regardless of whether it is a religious issue or not. I am proud of you for standing up for yourself. Unfortunately, that is the way of the world. Everyone believes in freedom of speech as long as you have the same opionion as they do. I have experienced similar situations in "Christian" schools so it isn't just state schools that are affected.

Kim said...

Way to go Meredith! Stand up for what is right and you'll never be truly alone even though it might feel that way at the moment! Keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

I am so proud of you for standing up for your beliefs. Sadly, you'll frequently be ridiculed for sharing your beliefs with others. Just keep it up!

Granna said...

Meredith,
I am proud of you. It takes courage to speak up when you know that you will be in the minority. Regardless, you did the right thing. Others may think about it when they get alone and realize their error. Even if they don't, you spoke up and expressed an opinion that needed expressing. Attending state schools has drawbacks. I had my problems at UAB, but never heard one word of profanity at UWA.
Stand strong,
Susan