Just finished watching a really interesting video clip from PBS and thought I’d share it with the membership. Washington Post’s Dana Priest reports on the sprawling post-9/11 terrorism-industrial complex and its growing reach into the lives of ordinary Americans.
The video clip is about 21 minutes long and worth watching.
Link to the video: Are We Safer?
Redding library dispute may go to court; 2 groups threaten to sue over free speech
by Scott Mobley
January 28, 2011 | Record Searchlight
Two groups are threatening to sue the city of Redding if it goes ahead with a proposed policy that restricts speech outside the main public library.
The North State Tea Party Alliance and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California have called the city’s effort to regulate leafleting, pamphleteering and other literature distribution around the library entrance unconstitutional.
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Redding officials and civil libertarians clash on whether the city has any right to restrict pamphleteers outside the library who are not purposefully interfering with patrons.
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The city wants people handing out literature to sit behind a 30-square-foot table in no more than six chairs on the far left side of the entrance. Patrons interested in picking up a pamphlet or leaflet can venture to the table.
The city also wants pamphleteers to reserve table space at least 72 hours before setting up there. Library staff members may approve shorter-term requests.
Civil libertarians have said the city cannot legally limit pamphleteers to a table. People passing out literature should be able to walk up to anyone going in or out of the library and leave leaflets on windshields in the parking lot.
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This is an interesting topic. My first thought is that everyone has the right to say what they want to. We also have the right to decide whether or not we want to listen to what others are saying. After thinking about it, though, I wonder what patrons would think about people handing out pamphets/discussing the information as they come in the door. Would it be an annoyance? Is it up to the patrons to decide?
Channel3000.com
October 22, 2010
The Belleville School District superintendent is currently deciding whether a book being read by high school freshmen should continue to be a part of the curriculum.
It comes following a complaint from a parent who wants the book banned from class.
The process started in September and a decision has still not been made.
The concerned parent said she believes the book is offensive enough to affect other students and she wants it replaced as required reading.
“This is the first complaint we’ve had on it,” said Superintendent Randy Freese.
For more than eight years, “Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes” by Chris Crutcher has been the first book ninth-grade students at Belleville High School read.
TCPalm
Eve Samples | January 15, 2011
(Original blog posting September 25, 2010)
Foul-mouthed and sarcastic as he may be, Holden Caulfield is not getting booted from South Fork High School.
“The Catcher in the Rye,” J.D. Salinger’s provocative and sometimes crass novel about Caulfield, will remain on the school’s reading list — despite protests from the mother of an 11th-grader there.
The parent, Jo Anne Connolly of Stuart, went public with her concerns in September.
She didn’t like Salinger’s language, particularly his use of “the ‘F’ word” and frequent instances where the author “takes the Lord’s name in vain,” she told me then.
