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“Thoughts are
Free,” famous German song about freedom of thought, 1810-1820, author unknown
Shortly after I arrived in
the U.S., I realized that the freedom of speech Americans thought they had,
was, let’s just say, with no intention of offending anyone, a figment of their naïve
imagination.
I was naïve too, having
escaped a communist dictatorship, I felt free to speak my objective opinion,
thinking that there would be no harmful consequences since my freedom of speech
was guaranteed.
I felt elated. I did not
have to fear the security police day and night; and I did not have to be mindful
constantly of what I said around friends, co-workers, strangers, distant, and
close relatives.
Anything that disagreed
with the communist regime’s tyrannical propaganda sent anyone to jail, a gulag,
or worse yet, disappeared them permanently. If people had a strong
constitution, when their jail or gulag time expired, they were set free and hopefully
re-educated cheerleaders of the narcissistic president and his wife who thought
themselves to be the grandiose parents of the nation. If people’s constitution
was weak, they expired in jail from malnutrition, verbal abuse, and daily
beatings.
As soon as I came in
contact with educators, I realized, there was a problem with freedom of speech.
The freedom to speak was not really free. You could speak your mind but you were
ostracized, ignored, marginalized, or fired.
First, you had to have a
license to teach, a college degree in arts and sciences and professional
experience were not enough. Economically speaking, every time someone needs
licensure, that limits the number of approved and qualified people to perform a
specific profession or trade. In this case, anyone could be a teacher as long
as they were willing to go through the College of Education indoctrination
program.
Interestingly, many licensed
teachers were marginally qualified to teach their subject area of “expertise”
and scored poorly on the National Teacher Exam, but passed.
Secondly, the teachers did
not have the freedom to choose the curriculum; it was dictated by the
Department of Education of each state, directly connected to the federal
Department of Education.
In this system, teachers
had to follow verbatim the liberal teaching method of the day, and use textbooks
designed to help them achieve pre-set goals, very similar to the current Common
Core nationalized education curriculum. Could they object to the directives?
Yes, but their freedom was speech was neutralized by administrators and the
fear of losing their jobs.
As a teacher, I objected to
certain irrational methodology and rules, what I perceived to be socialized
curricula, to which I got the same canned answer, “This is how we do things in
the U.S., if you don’t like it, go back to where you hailed from.”
Later on, as political
correctness became the number one weapon used by liberals to stifle freedom of
speech, the answer became, “If you do it our way, you get to keep your job.”
Some more aggressive administrators said, since you are not a “team player,” we
will definitely not renew your contract next year. The threat never materialized. America is a
very litigious society, lawyers are expensive, and schools are terribly afraid
of being sued, particularly when they don’t have a case.
At the college level, famous
for academic freedom, conservatives did not dare express their objective and
logical opinions, often contradicting the liberal talking points, lest they
never make the tenured professor list. Some
conservatives escaped the progressive scrutiny, thus receiving tenure, but it
was a rare occurrence.
Conservative students
suffered equally under the tyranny of outrageous liberal professors who
demanded from their students nothing but total agreement with their belief
system; if students were foolish enough to speak their minds and question the “settled”
scholarly “authority” of their professors, they failed the class.
The current main stream
media talking heads read the identically-worded paragraphs received from the
same source daily, not unlike the communist era radio and television reporters
behind the Iron Curtain, broadcasting the daily script from the national
newspaper called “Romania Libera,” (Free Romania) which was a terrible contradiction,
since we were such slaves. The paper reported as much truth as the Soviet era
newspaper Pravda (The Truth).
Politicians today regurgitate
the positions fed to them by advisors and lobbyists. Liberal newspapers repeat
the misinformation established by the Democrat Party, the union lobby, and the
non-governmental organizations lobby.
Conservatives writers and
radio talk show hosts self-censor their columns and shows for fear of
litigation by powerful billionaires, ethnic lobby groups, and NGOs.
Employees hide their
political views for fear of losing their jobs. Parishioners do not express
their opinions in the ever more socialist churches because they don’t want to
lose their place of worship or the community they’ve grown accustomed to.
Conservatives don’t
plaster cars with bumper stickers that reflect their world views for fear of
having cars vandalized or destroyed. Liberals are proud to display all their
causes on bumpers and car windows - they know the opposition is peaceful,
tolerant, rational, and non-violent. Yet liberals label conservatives “racist”
and “hate mongers” if they disagree with progressive points of view, thus
shutting down any opposition.
Recently, Rush Limbaugh discussed
on his August 27, 2013 show the case of Mike Adams, “the only tenured
conservative professor at the University of North Carolina system, who simply
said that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.” Anger and outrage
from the faculty ensued, demanding that Adams be fired because of his
definition of marriage - so much for the world-famous academic freedom.
Mike Adams wrote a “Dear
Edward” letter to the professor who wanted him fired and who called him “an embarrassment
to higher education.”
“While I respect your
right to conclude that I am the biggest embarrassment to higher education in
America, I think you’re wrong. In fact, I don’t even think I’m the biggest embarrassment
to higher education in the state of North Carolina. But since you’re a liberal
and you support ‘choice’ – provided we’re talking about dismembering children
and not school vouchers for those who weren’t dismembered – I want to give you
some options. In fact, I’m going to describe the antics of ten professors,
official campus groups, and invited campus speakers in North Carolina and let
you decide which constitutes the biggest embarrassment to higher education.”
The ten examples cited were
approved forms of free speech in liberal academia.
1.
A women’s studies
professor and a psychology professor at Western Carolina University
co-sponsored in the early spring semester of 2013 a panel on bondage and S&M
with the goal “to teach college students how to inflict pain on themselves and
others for sexual pleasure.”
2.
At UNC Chapel
Hill, “a feminist professor believes that women can lead happy lives without
men. That’s nothing new. But what’s different is that she thinks women can form
lifelong domestic partnerships with dogs and that those relationships will
actually be fulfilling enough to replace marital relationships with men.”
3.
“At Duke
University, feminists hired a ‘sex worker’ (read: prostitute) to speak as part
of an event called the Sex Workers Art Show.” I am too embarrassed to repeat what
the male prostitute did after his speech. It involved the rectum, a burning sparkler,
and the singing of the Star Spangled Banner.
4.
“A porn star was
once paid to give a speech at UNCG. The topic was ‘safe sodomy.’ After her
speech, the feminist pornographer sold autographed butt plugs to students in
attendance.”
5.
“A few years ago
at UNC-Chapel Hill, a feminist group built a large vibrator museum in the
middle of the campus quad as part of their ‘orgasm awareness week.’”
6.
“A feminist
administrator at UNC-Wilmington sponsored a pro-abortion event. During the
event they sold tee shirts saying ‘I had an abortion’ to students who… well,
had abortions,” a not so subtle way to “encourage students to boast about the
fact that they had killed their own children.”
7.
“The same UNCW
administrator sponsored a workshop teaching students how to appreciate their
orgasms.”
8.
“A UNCW English
professor posted nude pictures of under-aged girls as part of an ‘art exhibit’
in the university library. The Provost then ordered the nude pictures to be
move away from the library and into the university union.” The incensed English
professor asked the Faculty Senate to censure the Provost for violating her ‘academic
freedom.’ The Faculty Senate sided with the feminist professor. The Provost was
later pressured to leave the university.”
9.
“A different
feminist professor at UNCW accused a male professor of putting tear gas in her
office. She was later caught putting her mail in a microwave oven. She did this
because she thought people were trying to poison her with anthrax and that the
oven would neutralize the toxins. She was not placed on leave for psychiatric reasons.
Instead, she was designated as the university’s official ‘counter terrorism’
expert.”
10. “And then there is Mike Adams. He thinks marriage is
between a man and a woman, and he is the biggest embarrassment on campus.”
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/08/27/why_are_feminists_judging_miley_cyrus
Mike Adams, a criminology
professor at Wilmington, wrote a book entitled “Letters to a Young Progressive:
How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting Things That You Don’t Understand.” I
must hurry and order this book before it is censored and disappears off the
shelves.
At the end of the day in
America, I still have my freedom of silence and my thoughts are still free
until they invent a computer that can read my mind. Have they?
