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Re: Friday, March 12, 2004
You and I have similar fears of big brother (in my case from both the left AND the right) but we part ways when it comes to our appreciation of Howard Stern as a cultural icon. For me, defending Howard Stern’s right to free speech is a little like when I was younger on the farm and we had to spread manure out on the fields. You knew it was the right thing for the farm in the long run, but you sure wanted to take a shower when you got done. Maybe Bush and the “right-wing conspiracy” ARE out to silence Howard and the lefties. Maybe they have taken advantage of an explosive situation and “lit the match”. But who provided the gas? From where I sit it looks like the “celebrities” and media folks that have just taken the whole “shock” thing too far. What happened to talent? What happened to hard work to put together something creative? These days it seems like all you need to do is expose yourself, have a long discourse about someone’s sexual history, have a healthy vocabulary of four-letter words, or shout at the top of your lungs. Whether its Howard or Janet or reality TV, I think people are beginning to get tired of the whole thing. Sure there are your “puritans” who are genuinely offended but there are a lot of other people who are just fed up. Maybe the RWC IS taking advantage of that situation now to try to eliminate the opposition and if so, that may be wrong. But we may also be seeing the natural process of a society determining where the boundaries lie. In the U.S. people should have the right the question boundaries and limitations but U.S. citizens also have the right to DEFEND those boundaries if that is what their conscience or religious beliefs dictate (or heck, maybe just because they like it that way). And regarding “boundary probing”, keep an eye out for people who test the boundaries just for kicks or just for their own personal gain. They wrap themselves in the flag and shout “free speech, free speech!” but all they’re really worried about is keeping themselves in the spotlight. Also remember that while a circle is a bounded object, there are an infinite number of points inside it; point being that you don’t ALWAYS need to be pushing limits in order to be creative. Sometimes it is necessary and courageous to break the “rules” and sometimes it’s necessary and courageous (and maybe even creative) to obey them. Just my 2 cents. Daniel
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