Re: Gasp! For broadcast media, patriotism pays

["Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sid Schweiger" <sid@wrko.com>
To: <bri@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 9:34 AM
Subject: Re: Gasp! For broadcast media, patriotism pays


> We went through this 50 years ago too, when it was, to all intents and
purposes, against the law to be a socialist, a communist or a liberal.  We
regularly confused dissent with disloyalty.  I thought we had learned to be
ashamed of those years, but it appears that the several generations between
then and now failed to either study that period or learn its lessons...and
history, I fear, is doomed to repeat itself.

What the hell are you talking about?   Are protestors being arrested for
peaceful protest?  In Portland, the city is letting people block the street
on a near daily basis and only makes arrests after people refuse to leave
after  several warnings.  Are people being prosecuted for sedition?

The proper lesson from our history is that the government should not take
action against people for their political views.  It is not that socialists,
communists, or liberals have a right to speak without criticism from people
that disagree with them.

Dissenters are free to criticize the government and those that support
government policy are free to criticize the dissenters.  That's the beauty
of the First Amendment.  It's a two-way street.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine