Will this be censored? FCC and decency blah blah blah
Every morning I wake up to Howard Stern. I know I know, he’s a pig, but sometimes he’s a funny pig! Anywho. He keeps talking about how the FCC and some congresspeople (an article for enlightenment) are trying to increase the fines for DJs on public radio for indecency. They also want to include satellite radio and cable tv in this travesty. I thought that I was supposed to be living in a more enlightened society… of course we did re-elect W. which doesn’t really say much for us. Between this and all the book banning going on in high schools around the country I don’t hold out much hope for this thing in our constitution called the first amendment. According to our Bill of Rights: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. No laws huh… seems to me that people are trying to find ways around that. I have some grievances!
1. People are trying to tell me what I should be listening to and how I should be listening to it. I sort of like listening to Howard Stern, and because I do, I’m considered indecent and immoral. People who don’t like what he has to say are trying to stop me from listening to him instead of turning the dial to another station. If they don’t want their children to listen to Howard Stern or someone else, then they should be monitoring what their children are listening to, not what I’m listening to.
2. If one thing is allowed to be monitored and censored, who’s to say that they won’t move on to other things? If they move to satellite and cable tv, why don’t they go to movies and books? Thank goodness we have big brother watching out for us! Ray Bradbury and George Orwell would be rolling over in their graves (well Ray Bradbury would be if he was dead but he’s not so he should be writing another apocalyptic book about a scary futuristic world) if they saw what was happening. In fact I think that we all should be rolling, but not rolling over and playing dead as it seems that we are.
3. We should not be burning books, and telling teenagers that we don’t think that they can handle reading certain books because of the langauge, sex or violence. Parents are deluding themselves if they think that their teenagers are unaware of crude language, sex or violence. Look at what’s going on around them! Millions of people in Africa are dying of AIDS. We are at war with Iraq that will not end. “Good” christian people are spouting hateful words against gays and other minorities. We do not need to hide our teenagers from this. We need to educate ourselves and our kids. I want to scream at these parents that think that they are going to protect their innocent little children from the evils of the world. What happens when they go to college? Are their parents going to sleep in the dorm room with them? Are they going to move into their 30 year-old son’s new house?
I’m getting tired and depressed and I’m starting to ramble. I better go to sleep.