Missing the point

Submitted by Baruch Lawrence (United States), Apr 30, 2003 at 22:20

If one thinks it would be nice to have a country where professors are reprimanded for discussing their personal political views, especially when they are percieved as demoralizing and harmful to the current administration's goals, one may be happy to hear that there are countries that are way ahead of you. For example, one might try living in Iran. They don't mind conservativism at all, as a matter of fact, they won't tolerate anything less! One may even get the opppurtunity to see a few liberals hanged if one sticks around long enough.

I thank god I live in a westernized liberal (in the apolitcal sense) country like the US, Israel, France, England, etc. etc, where I feel relatively secure that even if I were to voice opposition to our current government's policies I may do so without fear of losing my job or my freedom, even if there is a little pressure on us at the present time.

What's the point of protecting freedom if we take away all the freedom to protect???

Protestors who shout "death to Israel" (one must realize that those are NOT leftist protestors!) or block city streets are idiots - but someone one day might thinking the same thing about you if you ever feel the need to protest. Professors that explain to their students why they think US foreign policy is misguided may ultimately be wrong. But the fact is that they still voice a unique perspective on the problems facing us - the same goes for the conservative view. Protecting freedom isn't a science...

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