According to an article in The Progressive, students in a high school civics class in North Carolina were given an assignment “to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights”. To demonstrate Freedom of Speech, one of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, one of the students tacked a magazine photograph of George W. Bush to the wall (with a red thumbtack through George’s head), and took a photograph of himself standing by it making a thumbs-down gesture. He then pasted the resulting photograph to a poster.
A Wal-Mart employee saw the photo when it was brought in for processing and tipped off the Kitty Hawk NC police department, who contacted the Secret Service. As a result, the student and his teacher were questioned by United States Secret Service agents, who also seized the poster.
Note that the poster did not represent even an implied threat against the president.
I’m at a loss for words to describe my disgust for Wal-Mart, the Kitty Hawk NC police department, and the Secret Service in their handling of this “incident”.
As a protest, I think that everyone should create anti-Bush materials, take photographs of them with film cameras, and have the film processed (but not by Wal-Mart; let’s not reward them for this behavior). Just be sure that your anti-Bush materials are not threatening. Disapproving or insulting should be fine. If you get reported to the authorities for doing this, please publicize the fact; if you don’t have your own blog, send me the details, and once I’ve confirmed them, I’ll post the information here.
Freedom of Speech, R.I.P.
According to an article in The Progressive, students in a high school civics class in North Carolina were given an assignment “to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights”. To demonstrate Freedom of Speech, one of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, one of the students tacked a magazine photograph of George W. Bush to the wall (with a red thumbtack through George’s head), and took a photograph of himself standing by it making a thumbs-down gesture. He then pasted the resulting photograph to a poster.
A Wal-Mart employee saw the photo when it was brought in for processing and tipped off the Kitty Hawk NC police department, who contacted the Secret Service. As a result, the student and his teacher were questioned by United States Secret Service agents, who also seized the poster.
Note that the poster did not represent even an implied threat against the president.
I’m at a loss for words to describe my disgust for Wal-Mart, the Kitty Hawk NC police department, and the Secret Service in their handling of this “incident”.
As a protest, I think that everyone should create anti-Bush materials, take photographs of them with film cameras, and have the film processed (but not by Wal-Mart; let’s not reward them for this behavior). Just be sure that your anti-Bush materials are not threatening. Disapproving or insulting should be fine. If you get reported to the authorities for doing this, please publicize the fact; if you don’t have your own blog, send me the details, and once I’ve confirmed them, I’ll post the information here.