September/October Topic Quotes and Recommended Reading
Editor and Researcher: Craig Linton
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Resolved: When they conflict, respect for cultural sensitivity ought to be valued above commercial use of free speech.
Quotes:
US News & World Report (8/9/99)
In Vermont, where such things don't always go over so well, the Burlington Free Press reports on an argument, made by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals http://www.peta-online.org, that milk is a racist beverage because ``tens of millions'' of blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans are lactose intolerant, while Caucasians are relatively tolerant, so to speak.
U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes
"This is a government of the people, by the people and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations http://www.vida.com/parenti/ram/CorporateCrime.ram, by corporations, and for corporations."
The Constitutional Connection, http://www.constitutionalconnect.com/, 9/8/99
The United States Constitution is the "Supreme Law of the Land," and any federal, state, or local law that conflicts with it is "per se" illegal;
- No matter what law "we the people" vote in, one judge can always overrule it simply by deciding (in his or her opinion) that the law is unconstitutional; therefore, a million of our votes become meaningless against that one judge's vote;
- Our Constitution has been abused by a liberal "politically correct" judiciary;
- Our voting power has been systematically eroded by this judicial abuse.
The ACLU Webpage, http://www.aclu.org
“The First Amendment exists precisely to protect the most offensive and controversial speech from government suppression. The best way to counter obnoxious speech is with more speech. Persuasion, not coercion, is the solution.”
Why Christians Should Examine All the Wares in the Marketplace of Ideas. Robert Harris, Vanguard University of Southern California. March 15, 1991 http://www.sccu.edu/Faculty/R_Harris/wares.htm, 9/8/99
Ideas, are in themselves, interesting things. Stimulating thought, analysis, new ideas, responses, causing you to adjust your position and incorporate new thinking into your view of things. Being challenged by strange ideas helps keep the rust and dogmatism off of our thoughts. Our thoughts are kept in proportion and a sense of measure is given to ideas.
Ideas are the raw material of other ideas, and you can't always tell what ideas are going to prove useful. Wisdom often travels unusual roads and it isn't always possible to know where or when you'll meet her. Impractical or plainly awful ideas can still be useful as stepping stones to practical or good ideas.
There are useful ideas and truths contained in the midst of bad ideas and falsehoods. Something true, useful, or good can be found in almost anything. Even Adolf Hitler said a few interesting things, about the nature of perseverance, for example. (more is on this page …)
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell, dissent in Abrams v. U.S. http://www.spectacle.org/296/rulebk.html, 9/8/99
[W]hen men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas-- that the best test of truth is is the power of thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment.
Justice John Paul Stevens, In the court's CDA opinion, In response to the ACLU and American Library Association's challenge to the Communications Decency Act, the government argued that by not controlling indecent material on the Internet, countless citizens are being driven away from the medium. http://w3.trib.com/FACT/1st.lev.internet.marketplace.html, 9/8/99
As a matter of constitutional tradition, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we presume that governmental regulation of the content of speech is more likely to interfere with the free exchange of ideas than to encourage it. The interests in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship.
Editorial in The Washington Times, Redskins and soreheads, http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/racial/redskin3.htm, 9/8/99
Nobody is expected to take sports nicknames seriously. The Redskins are not actually Indians. Everyone knows that. The Minnesota Vikings do not wear helmets with horns to church, the San Francisco 49ers do not pan for gold in their day jobs, the Pittsburgh Pirates do not actually board cruise ships to plunder the love boats. The New York Giants, though most of them look big enough, are not actually pituitarily challenged. The Washington Wizards, not being very grand, are not usually confused with Ku Klux Klansmen. The most successful minor-league baseball franchise in history, measured by pennants won, was that of the old Atlanta Crackers of the ate Southern Association, and it didn't occur to any of the actual Georgia crackers to take offense. They understood, like nearly everyone else, that nicknames are meant to be a bit of fun.
Most Indians -- or Native Americans, as a few of them prefer to be called, though this term actually includes most of the rest of us -- enjoy the fun. John Kent Cooke, the president of the Redskins, keeps a file of fan letters from Indians who take pride in the Redskins name, and it's a thick and growing file. Indeed, the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Tribes of Oklahoma has adopted a resolution specifically supporting the use of the name Redskins for the Washington club. The tribes, the resolution states, "wish to express their support for these positive images of Native Americans in the pursuit of sporting excellence."
The state House of Representatives in New Mexico, which has the largest percentage of Indian population of any of the 50 states, adopted a resolution encouraging the continued use of the nicknames by teams from high school through the professional leagues because the names "reflect the ancient history, perseverance and pride that sustain native American cultures and people in this land."
Nicknames such as Indians, Braves retain limited sentiment but have lots of sting. Phillip W. D. Martin, 04/19/98, Boston Globe. http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/racial/globe.htm, 9/8/99
Although some have argued the contrary, Indian mascots and designations of professional sports teams cannot be construed as some sort of homage to Indian heritage and influence. In Chief Wahoo, as with popular images of Thanksgiving, Indian people see no semblance of themselves. In 1996, during a panel discussion on racism in St. Petersburg, Fla., Gabriel Horn, a local Native American civil rights leader asked, ''Do you understand what its like for a boy to point to a cartoonish picture of an Indian and ask his father, `Dad, is that what we look like?'''
Tim Giago, Lakota. Publisher, Lakota Times. http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/racial/quote.htm, 9/8/99
On a recent radio talk show I spoke with a young lady who had been a cheerleader for a team called the Indians. She said, "when I put on my feathers and war point, donned my buckskins, and beads, I felt I was honoring Indians." I asked her, "if your team was called the African-Americans and you painted your face black, put on an Afro wig, donned a Dashiki, and danced around singing songs and making noises you thought were African, would you be honoring blacks?' Her answer was No - of course not. That would be insulting to them." End of discussion.
Melea Powell. http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/racial/quote.htm, 9/8/99
Tradition is no reason to be trapped in the past - no reason to be racist.
Gary Sandefur (Chicsaw). http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/racial/quote.htm, 9/8/99
The use of American Indian team names and much of the use of native American symbols and images promotes stereotypical thinking. Many Americans seem to think Indians no longer exist, or that if they do, they are broken and destitute skeletons of the formidable "noble savages" of the past.
Recommended Reading:
University of Missouri should not adopt a campus hate speech code…
http://web.missouri.edu/~commpjb/html/sample_position_paper.html
Why Christians Should Examine All the Wares in the Marketplace of Ideas
http://www.sccu.edu/Faculty/R_Harris/wares.htm
The Free Speech Rule Book
http://www.spectacle.org/296/rulebk.html
Marketplace Keeps Speech Free of Government Controls
http://w3.trib.com/FACT/1st.lev.internet.marketplace.html
American University Law Review by Stephen C. Jacques
http://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/journals/lawrev/Jacquestxt.htm
Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Association, Inc. v. United States, (98-387)
http://www.fac.org/legal/supcourt/98-99/NewOrleans_sum.htm
New York city council bans colorful storefront tobacco ads
http://www.freedomforum.org/speech/1998/3/16tobacco.asp
End Racial Bigotry Now
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/racial/redskin3.htm
Nicknames Such as Indians, Braves Retain Limited Sentiment But Have Lots of Sting
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/racial/globe.htm
Some folks angry about Taco Bell ads
http://jdnews.com/stories/1998/04/17/uc2133.shtml
Taco Bell and Latino Stereotypes
http://www.latinousa.org/learning/tacobell.html
Ted Turner “Use your own family as mascots parody”
http://www.iwchildren.org/fonda.htm
Real Indians call World Series hoopla 'demeaning
http://detnews.com/menu/stories/20823.htm
The politically correct are sure to tune this World Series out
http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ap/bbo/1995/mlb/mlb/feat/archive/101895/mlb17429.html
A Major-League Insult?
http://www.usaweekend.com/97_issues/970706/970706resp_st_wahoo.html
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