Maybe Free Speech Will Survive Trump



There was a fascinating opinion in a Federal Appeals court in Florida signaling some hope for freedom of speech. The MAGA Florida legislature and Governor passed a law state universities cannot teach "woke" ideas. Readers know this is both specific issues like our history, racial equality, trans and will include in the future whatever and whomever conservative politics decides to demonize next.

The law was challenged by a group of students and faculty. It ended up in the Federal Court of Appeals in that district. A Trump appointee wrote the majority opinion that the Florida legislature cannot dictate which ideas and acceptable and which not. A majority overruled the law. I suppose the Supreme Court could hear this case, not sure.

If there is one thread that can hold together this democracy it is free speech. Conservatives have the bonkers notion that "free speech" is private education from childhood to adulthood. A dissenting view in the Florida decision was that a state employee, a professor, had no right to state views not approved of by the state legislature. 

These conservative views are hard to fathom. If there is a class on sexuality and the topic of trans is covered, what can be said about it? For example, the professor could state a disclaimer at the beginning of the trans material that she neither approves nor disapproves of people changing the gender assigned to them at birth. Classes usually have questions from students and responses by other students. If a student says, "I am trans, I am a happy and well adjusted adult.." is that student to be removed by campus security? If a large portion of the class applauds and approves of the student's remark are all those students removed also?

The Florida legislature/Governor passed a law that is unworkable and ridiculous. The court majority, including a Trump appointee, were correct in sending it to the bonfire of crazy ideas.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Will We Ever Know How Accurate Current Bibles Are

Image
When I discuss the many times the Bible was copied and recopied by scribes over a couple of thousand years, the reply is often, "I have a book by this (or that) expert who says the Bible is 99% accurate to its original writers." The 99% claim appears in various places defending the Bible. There is one thing we know absolutely: There is no surviving original copy of the Bible. Even the oldest surviving material is a generation or two after the time some of the Bible was written. This means no one can claim he has, or ever will, compare the current Bible to the original Bible and find the two are 99% the same. We cannot claim either that it is not 99% accurate. For the sake of discussion, however, assume the current Bible is 99% accurate. That would mean the one word out of every 100 was inaccurate. It could still mean an important misreading of the original text. An example is the passage referring to punishment for a man who kills a fetus. In the oldest know materia...
Read more

Ancient God, Bel (Baal), the Main Character in an Ancient Play

Image
In a British museum is a preserved stone tablet from Babylon. It dates to about 2,000 BCE. Someone labored patiently to inscribe an entire passion play featuring the god Bel. I reiterate this is a stone tablet, not a recopied papyrus. The play begins with the god Bel arrested by soldiers and taken off the stage. He reappears at a trial in the Hall of Judgement. Bel is innocent but is sentenced to death. In the next scene Bel is accosted by a mob. He is despised and rejected. The actor playing Bel is then taken by guard to a hilltop in a sacred grove. Two criminals are taken with him. One of these is released. The the audience then leaves the theater and follows the actor Bel and his guards to the top of a hill where the death scene is enacted by hanging from a tree. The audience returns to the theater for the dramatic final scenes. The dead Bel is stripped and prepared for burial. On a theatrical hill to the side of the stage is a tomb where the body is placed. A stone is rolle...
Read more

Time to Forget the Christian Nation Thing

Image
While women are forbidden from being priests/preachers in some branches of Christianity thank goodness they are not forbidden from writing and lecturing about Christianity. A great article about the "Christian nation" notion shows us the U.S. is not a Christian nation and hopefully never will be. It is written by a woman with nerve and was published on a very Christian site, Christian Post.  Among the pilgrims were a few that wanted to establish a utopian Christian society. Some of their brethren stayed behind in Europe hoping the push aside worldly forces there and bring sinners to God. Today, whether it is the anti abortion, anti gay/trans, anti immigration or the put prayer back in schools branch there are those who want a version of what some pilgrims wanted, a utopian Christian society. The pilgrims were disappointed. Today's Christian utopians will be also. Here is why. The children of pilgrims did not believe the same things as their parents. Parents were roundly d...
Read more