Regardless of what my personal opinion may be, it always annoys me when people start acting all indignant about the law and their rights over things where they are clearly on the wrong side of the law, or at least of its widely accepted interpretation.
Examples:
[Situation]
At the beginning of last year, when a comedian was kicked off stage at Manchester for using hate speech and being wildly offensive. People started throwing a fuss about free speech and how Manchester was infringing on our rights, saying "free speech is dead at Manchester." Later that year, a discussion arose on the board outside the Peace Studies lounge asking "should Manchester College have a hate speech code?" One answer read simply, "NO! First amendment!"
[Fact]
First, we should make clear that declaring codes against hate speech or indecncy in violation of the First Amendment is not exactly settled law, though it seems to be getting in that direction (thanks in part to the ACLU). But more applicably, the First Amendment declares that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech..." It says nothing about Manchester College, a private institution that is well within its rights to restrict hate speech as much as it wants.
[Situation]
I was arrested in March on charges of criminal trespass in the Federal Building in Fort Wayne, Indiana, while sitting with two friends (Cliff and James) in the hallway outside Senator Lugar's office. We were praying, reading the names of Indiana soldiers killed in Iraq, and talking with each other, all while "occupying" the hallway and awaiting Senator Lugar's full support of complete troop withdrawal or, more likely, arrest. At around 3pm we were arrested by U.S. Marshals and later transferred to the Allen County Jail. Friends and allies consistently expressed anger at our arrest, and a popular slogan in the area peace community and on websites became "Arrested for praying."
[Fact]
We were in a publicly-owned building inside normal business hours when we were arrested, and we were not causing any sort of a disturbance. But the fact is we were willing to stay until after business hours and had every intention of being arrested. And the White House is public property, but that doesn't give you the right to waltz into the President's bedroom. We disobeyed a direct order by a U.S. Marshal to leave the hallway. We were, in fact, engaging in criminal trespass, and it was no injustice that we were arrested. I think some people want the government to be the "bad guy" in every situation, and they were quick to grab our arrest as a great example of horrible oppression. That's a lost cause - we were breaking the law (a perfectly reasonable law at that), and we were willing to accept the consequences. I'm sure Cliff and James would be with me in saying our arrest is not where we want people to focus their attention - instead, we rather hoped our arrest would direct attention at the injustice of the war itself.
[Situation]
Tv-links.co.uk, a popular website for viewing TV shows and movies, was recently shut down and its owner arrested. There were indignant protests on Digg, saying this isn't democracy and we're on our way to a complete loss of our rights, and, as always, more comments about the First Amendment.
[Fact]
The U.S. Constitution does not say anything about guaranteeing the right to take a video camera into a movie theater and post the movie on a website, and no court has ever ruled that movie or television piracy is protected under freedom of speech. I'm opposed to copyright law and enforcement and all for the free flow of ideas, but I don't think any of it is illegal or unjust.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Mexican Lava, American Pie
Classes were canceled yesterday because November 20 is el Día de la Revolución, so Rob, Norma, Amy, Jared and I went up to Volcancillo, an extinct volcano half an hour or so outside of Xalapa. Boy was that an awesome trip... we hiked up to the rim of the volcanic crater, which is basically like being on the edge of a cliff except the cliff encircles a huge crater. Then we crawled into a tiny lava tube and followed it down the hill a ways, at times having to lie on our backs and scoot ourselves along with the cave ceiling just inches from our noses. Claustrophobia, anyone? After that we went to a much bigger but far more out-of-the-way cave, where we had slow going because it wasn't exactly fixed up for tourists. Our only sources of light were four (and at times just two) candles, which we trusted to show us the difference between a rock we could step on and "the abyss" (in reality, usually just a gap where you could fall two or three feet, but still quite dangerous in our situation). We finished off the day by eating at a nearby restaurant, where I had rabbit. It doesn't taste bad, but I wouldn't recommend it - you're paying a lot for a rather pathetic quantity of meat.
Today turned out to be the worst day ever to take public transportation because, as you may have noticed, yesterday was just the 19th of November. Today was the real holiday, so the streets were jammed with parades and people standing around not doing anything. I understand the extended weekend mentality, but I really think they could have canceled classes today. I hopped into a yellow line colectivo (a van) because I was too lazy to walk to school, which turned out to be a big mistake. I started to realize this when the driver kept following 20 de noviembre (that's the street name) when he should have gone onto Xalapeños Ilustres. When I questioned him about this, he said not to worry. Apparently "don't worry" means "I'm taking you to the middle of fucking nowhere," because when I finally gave up and got out of the van I had absolutely no idea where I was. Trusting my innate ability to intuit the general direction of el centro, I wandered around for about an hour before finally finding familiar territory, forcing my way through crowds of people and arriving at the school, forty minutes late for class.
Thursday will be some sort of presentation at my school about various ethnic foods, an event in which students are encouraged to take part, bringing traditional dishes from their home countries. This begs a question that has come up several times here: is there really any traditional American food? We have a HUGE variety of food, and while you might attribute burgers and fries to a normal American diet, they're hardly traditional, nor are they unique to our fine country. I will venture so far as to claim that we do not, in fact, truly have traditional food, and I'll also speculate as to the reason: we're a nation of immigrants. Other western hemispheric nations, like Mexico, have notable indigenous populations with their own traditional dishes, as well as foods from the conquering lands (i.e. Spain). We, however, have virtually no remaining indigenous population (not to marginalize what American Indians are left), and our heritage is so diverse we don't have one or two countries providing native dishes. Our diet includes elements from Italy, France, England and Germany (and now even Mexico, another relatively new country). And while we can find a few stereotypical items like meatloaf and mashed potato items (or more accurately, corn and turkey), we really don't have much in the way of our own line of actual traditional dishes.
But then, nothing's more American than Apple pie!
(We also invented the burrito).
Today turned out to be the worst day ever to take public transportation because, as you may have noticed, yesterday was just the 19th of November. Today was the real holiday, so the streets were jammed with parades and people standing around not doing anything. I understand the extended weekend mentality, but I really think they could have canceled classes today. I hopped into a yellow line colectivo (a van) because I was too lazy to walk to school, which turned out to be a big mistake. I started to realize this when the driver kept following 20 de noviembre (that's the street name) when he should have gone onto Xalapeños Ilustres. When I questioned him about this, he said not to worry. Apparently "don't worry" means "I'm taking you to the middle of fucking nowhere," because when I finally gave up and got out of the van I had absolutely no idea where I was. Trusting my innate ability to intuit the general direction of el centro, I wandered around for about an hour before finally finding familiar territory, forcing my way through crowds of people and arriving at the school, forty minutes late for class.
Thursday will be some sort of presentation at my school about various ethnic foods, an event in which students are encouraged to take part, bringing traditional dishes from their home countries. This begs a question that has come up several times here: is there really any traditional American food? We have a HUGE variety of food, and while you might attribute burgers and fries to a normal American diet, they're hardly traditional, nor are they unique to our fine country. I will venture so far as to claim that we do not, in fact, truly have traditional food, and I'll also speculate as to the reason: we're a nation of immigrants. Other western hemispheric nations, like Mexico, have notable indigenous populations with their own traditional dishes, as well as foods from the conquering lands (i.e. Spain). We, however, have virtually no remaining indigenous population (not to marginalize what American Indians are left), and our heritage is so diverse we don't have one or two countries providing native dishes. Our diet includes elements from Italy, France, England and Germany (and now even Mexico, another relatively new country). And while we can find a few stereotypical items like meatloaf and mashed potato items (or more accurately, corn and turkey), we really don't have much in the way of our own line of actual traditional dishes.
But then, nothing's more American than Apple pie!
(We also invented the burrito).
Saturday, November 17, 2007
All things beyond my control
(Written yesterday and contains more interesting things than my smelly socks)
My room smells, and it is not a pleasant smell of daffodils or skunk (which I do appreciate). More like the kind of smell you'd expect from opening the 3-year-old gym bag you just found or sitting near the bathroom on a 10 hour bus ride in Mexico. I spent much of this morning following my nose around my room, attempting to locate its source. It's amazing how the human nose can pick up subtle smells from tiny particles, yet we never seem to be able to track down where they're coming from. I checked my shoes to see if they could be at fault (I do believe I walked through dried-out vomit on my way home last night), but they did not appear to be the focal point of the smell. I checked all corners of the room for dead animals. In the end, the culprit was clear: the socks I'd worn in the rain yesterday and put outside my window to dry had, due to what I can only assume was overnight rain, not done so, and the smell was wafting into the room. Mystery solved.
The socks weren't the only thing emitting a foul odor, though. Last night, as some of you might be aware, was a CNN Democratic presidential debate, starring Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd and the unforgettable Joe Biden. I'm right there with all the pundits who say Clinton basically carried the debate - after weeks of Obama and Edwards taking shots at her, she showed up well-rested and well-spoken and managed to rise above the squabble, though not without a little help from Wolf Blitzer, who seemed to be keen on interrupting and patronizing everyone but her.
Obama and Edwards were just outright embarrassing. Obama spent the evening tripping over himself and failing to answer questions, while Edwards came across as hot-headed and angry. Joe Biden was his usual hilarious self, repeatedly saying things like "Let's just cut the crap, America doesn't care about this stuff" and being the only candidate to answer yes or no questions with a yes or no.
In my mind, the shining stars were Kucinich (who I always love) and, actually, Bill Richardson, who I hadn't paid much attention to before but now am starting to like. Richardson won my heart by saying "give peace a chance" and saying human rights should get a higher priority than percieved national security. Meanwhile, Kucinich just agrees with me on every issue out there.
A couple of my favorite moments:
Hillary Clinton was asked whether it was true that her campaign was playing the gender card. She said no, absolutely not, and that she's running for president not because she's a woman but because she's the best qualified candidate. She went on to tell an allegory of a 95-year-old woman who shakes her hand and says "I was born before women could vote, and I want to live long enough to see a woman be president."
How is that not playing the race card?
And finally, my favorite:
Moderator: "Mr. Kucinich, you're the only person on stage that had the opportunity to vote on the Patriot Act and voted against it..."
Kucinich: "Because I read it."
And, since this post is regarding all things beyond my control, I want to express dismay that I'm being charged 920 pesos (90 dollars) to replace the lens mechanism on my camera.
Finally, I continue to be frustrated by some comments apparently not showing up. Try leaving some and see what happens.
My room smells, and it is not a pleasant smell of daffodils or skunk (which I do appreciate). More like the kind of smell you'd expect from opening the 3-year-old gym bag you just found or sitting near the bathroom on a 10 hour bus ride in Mexico. I spent much of this morning following my nose around my room, attempting to locate its source. It's amazing how the human nose can pick up subtle smells from tiny particles, yet we never seem to be able to track down where they're coming from. I checked my shoes to see if they could be at fault (I do believe I walked through dried-out vomit on my way home last night), but they did not appear to be the focal point of the smell. I checked all corners of the room for dead animals. In the end, the culprit was clear: the socks I'd worn in the rain yesterday and put outside my window to dry had, due to what I can only assume was overnight rain, not done so, and the smell was wafting into the room. Mystery solved.
The socks weren't the only thing emitting a foul odor, though. Last night, as some of you might be aware, was a CNN Democratic presidential debate, starring Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd and the unforgettable Joe Biden. I'm right there with all the pundits who say Clinton basically carried the debate - after weeks of Obama and Edwards taking shots at her, she showed up well-rested and well-spoken and managed to rise above the squabble, though not without a little help from Wolf Blitzer, who seemed to be keen on interrupting and patronizing everyone but her.
Obama and Edwards were just outright embarrassing. Obama spent the evening tripping over himself and failing to answer questions, while Edwards came across as hot-headed and angry. Joe Biden was his usual hilarious self, repeatedly saying things like "Let's just cut the crap, America doesn't care about this stuff" and being the only candidate to answer yes or no questions with a yes or no.
In my mind, the shining stars were Kucinich (who I always love) and, actually, Bill Richardson, who I hadn't paid much attention to before but now am starting to like. Richardson won my heart by saying "give peace a chance" and saying human rights should get a higher priority than percieved national security. Meanwhile, Kucinich just agrees with me on every issue out there.
A couple of my favorite moments:
Hillary Clinton was asked whether it was true that her campaign was playing the gender card. She said no, absolutely not, and that she's running for president not because she's a woman but because she's the best qualified candidate. She went on to tell an allegory of a 95-year-old woman who shakes her hand and says "I was born before women could vote, and I want to live long enough to see a woman be president."
How is that not playing the race card?
And finally, my favorite:
Moderator: "Mr. Kucinich, you're the only person on stage that had the opportunity to vote on the Patriot Act and voted against it..."
Kucinich: "Because I read it."
And, since this post is regarding all things beyond my control, I want to express dismay that I'm being charged 920 pesos (90 dollars) to replace the lens mechanism on my camera.
Finally, I continue to be frustrated by some comments apparently not showing up. Try leaving some and see what happens.
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