Stand Up and Be Heard

I read an article today about young man in Cary, Ill who is being prosecuted for writing a violent essay in school. The assignment by the teacher was to write a creative essay, there would be no censorship. However when the essay was submitted it was handed over to the police and the young man is being charged on two counts.

Here we go again with our freedom of speech. This young man was given card blanch to write what ever he wanted, how ever he wanted to until someone said I don't think I like the way this one went. That someone was the teacher who gave the assignment. She started to think twice about her assignment and thought she better turn this one over to the administration and have them handle it just in case some thing goes wrong some where in the future. Well let's take a look at our great writers of today should we lock them up or fine them. Should Steven King be fined and sentenced to 30 days in jail because of his imagination. I don't think so. Now tell me what the difference is with this young man being creative and someone getting paid for it. He was getting a grade for his work and following the assignment. Obviously with a 4.2 GPA he paid attention in class and knew how to do his work. He was well aware of the assignment made sure he had it right before he set out to do this. Perhaps she should have considered a conference between administration, the parents, and the student to find out why he wrote such a violent essay but then again she may not have wanted to do that because of the way she assigned the paper to begin with. Here is a young man who has never been in trouble and who is in the top of his class doing what he is told to do and now he is about to be put on trial for it and his dreams have been taken away from him. He was signed up to become a Marine and because of these charges the United States Marines have had to drop him from the recruiting ranks. He has already passed his entrance exams as well as his psychiatric evaluation but he will not be able to join the ranks until he is cleared of these charges. This young man did not deserve to have his dreams taken away from him for doing what he was told to do. Did he carry it too far, perhaps he did. Perhaps the final stress of his senior year and all he has had to endure during his time in school made him act out on paper more than he intended to but he put it into words and not actions. He wrote it as a writer would not as a murderer would. He did not pick up a gun and go out there and kill people he wrote an essay, told a story, most people get paid for this. He may get punished. I just don't see where that is right. I think if he followed the assignment then so be it and the if the assignment was out of the curriculum of the school then the teacher should be the one who is being reprimanded not the student. He is not in control of the class only his work and he did as he was told to do as I have said time and again.

I feel with all the violence that has gone on in the news of late they are picking on this poor young man., making him the scapegoat, and taking away his right to freedom of speech, there by punishing him for his creativity. Where does it end? Do we allow this to continue to keep going on? Our ancestors have fought for our freedoms and the men and women of our armed forces today fight to keep us free. Do we spit on this and allow big brother to come into our schools, our homes, our bedrooms and tell us what we can and can not do, think, read, watch, how to act, how not to act. Think about it where do we allow it to end. If we allow this to continue to go on and this young man is punished for listening to a teacher and following the rules maybe the next time it will be you. Perhaps someone will take offense of something you say or do and file charges against you and with the way things are today you will be prosecuted because to someone, some where feells you are offensive in some way. Just like this essay. I may have stepped on a few toes here and perhaps it will draw some attention, perhaps the wrong attention, and I will find myself looking at the possibility of big brother keeping an eye on what I write from now on. Well I believe in the freedom this wonderful country was founded on. I believe in getting rid of those who cause all this mass hysteria in this land of ours and treating this country with the pride it was founded on. I believe it's time for the citizens of the United States of America to stand up and be heard and fight for what they believe in. Take back our freedoms and let the lawmakers know we will not take it any more we have rights and our children have rights as well.