Last week the American Journalism Review and the First Amendment Center released a disturbing poll where it found 49 percent of Americans feel the First Amendment goes too far in the freedoms it allows, and that the press especially has too much freedom and has been too aggressive when it comes to questioning the government about the war on terrorism.
Yet, in that same poll, 48 percent of Americans also feel the government has been too secretive regarding information on the war on terrorism. In addition, many Americans are fearful too many of their civil liberties are being taken away by the government since Sept. 11.
Judges have to force the government to release the names of detainees, and people are questioning the far-reaching powers of the Patriot Act, which allows the government to search a person’s home without immediately listing the object of the search and also allows the attorney general to deport individuals who engage in any nonviolent activity on behalf of any group deemed a terrorist organization.
People cannot have it both ways. You cannot want to restrict the rights granted to us by the First Amendment while expecting the government to release more information.
One of the greatest things about this country is that you can be patriotic and yet not support the government’s actions. Being patriotic means believing in the fundamental principles upon which this country was founded, and the freedoms allotted to us in the First Amendment are what allow us to be patriotic, yet disagree with decisions made by our leaders.
Since the enactment of the Patriot Act, many have questioned how the government is infringing on our civil liberties. According to the poll, Americans feel the government is not being open enough, but the press is being too aggressive. In actuality, if most Americans feel they don’t have enough information about the war on terrorism, then the press isn’t being aggressive enough.
It is the media’s job to be a watchdog on the government, to keep it in check, to ask the hard questions and make the government open up information to the public. The government is not going to release information on its own. You need the press to constantly hound them down and dig in. If the press didn’t do this we would have never known about Watergate or the Pentagon Papers.
People may not like how aggressive the press is in fighting to get information, but the press is doing a job for citizens who do not have the means or time to fight to get the information themselves.
Since Sept. 11, government officials at all levels have been trying to keep more and more information secret. Even in Wisconsin, a state long revered for its liberal open-records laws, some lawmakers are talking about making records in the state less open.
In addition, more than four in 10 people said they would limit the academic freedom of professors and ban their criticism of the government military policy.
If we can’t have the free discourse of ideas in academia, where can we? College is supposed to be the place to challenge students’ convictions, make them stronger in their beliefs and teach them about philosophies they may not know about–even the unpopular ones.
About the same ratio of people favor restricting public remarks, display of art or playing of music that might offend others. Tell me who determines what is or is not offensive? What offends one does not offend another person–the determination is not black and white.
The world is not a nice place. We are constantly bombarded with different, unpopular opinions that may offend us. People need to learn to deal with that, and debate needs to be fostered; this country would no longer be a democracy if we were not allowed to question the government’s philosophies in the classroom.
Believing and practicing the First Amendment is not easy. Believing in it means willingness to be offended, frustrated and made downright angry. It is not easy to sit and let someone who believes the exact opposite of you speak freely.
Likewise, it is not easy for them to sit and listen to you. But it is listening to ideas completely different than your own that makes your own beliefs stronger and allows for all views to be seen. The First Amendment was designed with the minority opinion in mind–to reduce the freedoms it allows will stifle the debate, which would cease making our country a democracy.
Instead of being afraid of what the First Amendment may bring up, Americans should embrace it and realize it is the freedoms guaranteed within the First Amendment that allow them to say they don’t like what the government is doing, that forces the government to release information about what they are doing, and it will be the thing that helps protect civil liberties–not put them in jeopardy.
