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Fort Hood: Will the tragedy teach us to Protect or Undermine our Freedom of Speech?
Akron, OH
Friday, November 06, 2009
The talking heads were talking within hours of the Ft. Hood tragedy.
Post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, was labeled the culprit early in the evening. Until one guest on Larry King ventured to be politically incorrect.
One Army representative disagreed with the other "experts".. Perhaps PTSD
was not the culprit he pointed out. Perhaps it was an act of terrorism. If some talking heads can make PTSD the culprit, why is it politically incorrect to project terrorism as the culprit. Everyone is guessing. Why is one guess appropriate and not another?
The Army representative contributed a different theory. What if this was an act by a major with an Arabic last name and an agenda. The other talking heads leapt to the defense of PI, being politically correct. Here is the irony: enlisted American men and women fight for our freedom of speech, for our way of life. Then when a former enlistee ventures an opinion, the talking heads yell that you can't say those things.
When President Obama wanted to speak to school students at the beginning of the year, he encountered an odd array of reactions. Some parents threatened to pull their children from school, some school systems offered to make his speech optional. I wrote an article asking, tongue in cheek, if President Obama was the anti-Christ because of the extreme reaction of some people to his speaking to students. It is a free country and I was allowed to raise that question.
A month later I raised a different question about the freedom of speech. Oprah had herself photo shopped on the cover of her own magazine. She empowers women to be authentic. I questioned her weight. I was told that was slander.
We can question the president and not Oprah?
Where does slander live? Where does PI live? Where does freedom of speech live?
Through the tragedy of Ft. Hood we will learn much. Will we learn to keep our freedom of speech or will it get lost in the fight to be politically correct?
Post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, was labeled the culprit early in the evening. Until one guest on Larry King ventured to be politically incorrect.
One Army representative disagreed with the other "experts".. Perhaps PTSD
was not the culprit he pointed out. Perhaps it was an act of terrorism. If some talking heads can make PTSD the culprit, why is it politically incorrect to project terrorism as the culprit. Everyone is guessing. Why is one guess appropriate and not another?
The Army representative contributed a different theory. What if this was an act by a major with an Arabic last name and an agenda. The other talking heads leapt to the defense of PI, being politically correct. Here is the irony: enlisted American men and women fight for our freedom of speech, for our way of life. Then when a former enlistee ventures an opinion, the talking heads yell that you can't say those things.
When President Obama wanted to speak to school students at the beginning of the year, he encountered an odd array of reactions. Some parents threatened to pull their children from school, some school systems offered to make his speech optional. I wrote an article asking, tongue in cheek, if President Obama was the anti-Christ because of the extreme reaction of some people to his speaking to students. It is a free country and I was allowed to raise that question.
A month later I raised a different question about the freedom of speech. Oprah had herself photo shopped on the cover of her own magazine. She empowers women to be authentic. I questioned her weight. I was told that was slander.
We can question the president and not Oprah?
Where does slander live? Where does PI live? Where does freedom of speech live?
Through the tragedy of Ft. Hood we will learn much. Will we learn to keep our freedom of speech or will it get lost in the fight to be politically correct?
Leslie Ungar
Electric Impulse Communications, Inc.
Akron, OH
330-668-6569
