Freedom of Speech versus Secularism to the Point of Godlessness

Have we stepped so far beyond the lines of reasonable secularism as to give credence to the title of Ann Coulter's best selling new book with the untrue and (to some of us) unpleasant title, The Church of Liberalism, Godless.

Hopefully not! After all, the high school that turned off the microphone on valedictorian Brittany McColm (above) was only one of thousands of high schools countrywide that made such an unamerican decision. And for all I know, the majority of the students at that high school were legal immigrants from the Middle East.

But assuming they were not legal immigrants from the Middle East, Brittany's rights were clearly breached -- and for that matter, they were breached even if the majority of students and faculty at Foothill High School in Clark County, Nevada were/are fascist hold-overs from Nazi Germany, which I doubt -- at least not a majority!

I promised my brother Richard from Connecticut that I would be at least "toned down" in my comments on this subject, which he thought not so important as necessary to be posted. But, that said, let me at least state that I would give even the fascist school administrators and those teachers there who might be fascists (probably a minority of the teachers there), the right to their opinions in a forum such as that at which Brittany was speaking as a valedictorian speaker. Not everybody is a liberal Democrat, and extreme right-wingers who believe that Freedom of Speech has strict limits (such as the administrators at Foothill High School) deserve to be heard as well. I might not agree with them, but they have the right to be heard.

The point is simply that Brittany had every right in a valedictorian speech to credit her good work over the four years she spent at Foothill High School to anyone she so chooses -- her parents, her teachers ... and/or even her beloved Jesus Christ, her "Lord and Savior," as she included in the speech that was cut short, causing booing and jeering from the 400 or so in attendance.

Now, of course, the notoriety (wide spread knowledge) of her words will only give wide spread credence to what she said and what she was not able to say -- the exact opposite of what the radical right-wingers intended when they ordered her mic turned down/off. Heck, I even heard an interview of her twice -- once on a right-wing talk show and the other on a left-wing talk show -- which says something about how God's plan was inscrutable to the last nano-thought.

Admittedly, her speech was vetted and the offensive words (e.g., "God") were taken out ... and she had agreed to deliver the censored speech ahead of time. She changed her mind (a woman's right, my wife and daughters have often reminded me), however, and decided at the last minute to be true to her conscience and that which she believed to be "the biggest part of her [my] life."

Good for you, Brittany; you will go far in life as you stay true to your beliefs and don't let those who would have "thought police" (1984 by George Orwell) reign and/or freedom of speech watered down to where it might as well no longer be a part of our Bill of Rights" impede your forward progress.

Congratulations on your graduation, by the way; I am a teacher/professor and understand the excitement of this time in your life.