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Students punished for speaking truth to power »
Posted by: bobo-in-texas 2 years, 7 months agoIn an increasingly fascist BushAmerica, students are punished for offending the entrenched power structure even though everything that they say is true!
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Comments: 106
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gamahuche
May 12, 2007, 12:43 a.m.If someone wants to find extraordinarily weird and contentious stories they can find them in any culture under the sun.
The British behaviour to its "subjects" in many of their colonies, the slave trade, witchburning, Guantanamo; there is no beginning and no end to man's cruelty to man.
This version focusses on the Muslim world. Of course the examples given are vile and in the current world situation it will evoke some frenzied reaction but the students shouldn't have been punished - maybe invited to hold a public debate instead.
Otherwise, in my opinion, its a non-story.
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KingOfTruth
May 12, 2007, 1:38 a.m.http://news.netscape.com/story/2007/05/10/autho...
Authorities violate rights of dissident student
Many said that if George W. Bush were reelected we'd see Americans punished for expressing their ideas. I guess they were right!
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KingOfTruth
May 12, 2007, 1:56 a.m.I sent this article to every single EMAIL link on the Tufts website....
tuftsprimarysource@gmail.com,
vetadmissions@tufts.edu,
NutritionA...
sackler-school@tufts.edu,
med-oce@tufts.edu,
med-ogdp@tufts.edu,
med-info@tufts.edu,
FletcherAdmissions@tufts.edu,
gradschool@ase.tufts.edu,
admissions...
Jamshed.Bharucha@tufts.edu,
peggy.newell@tufts.edu
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CatholicRedneck
May 12, 2007, 4:47 a.m.Thanks, BoBo. The only thing in the student poster I disagreed with was the idea that our troops invaded Iraq to bring freedom. Huh? Saddam used to be our government's good buddy; when exactly did he attack us? I must have missed that. Was this murderous attack of his so severe that we had no choice but to strike back? I guess I'm gonna have to start getting my news from Fox because I sure didn't hear about that. But hey, I'm so glad our boys only want to bring freedom - although, if I were Iraqi, I might wonder what Abu Ghraib has to do with freedom.
I might also wonder why the Americans aren't bringing freedom to Saudi Arabia; after all, they have the largest oil reserves in the world, instead of the second largest as in Iraq.
Tell you what: let's keep Muslims out of America and America out of the Muslim world.
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1-2-Oscar
May 12, 2007, 6:46 a.m."speaking truth to power" is a phrase so overused that its meaning has become tainted. For Bobo in Texas, like so many others, it seems that half truths are sufficient.
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elel
May 12, 2007, 10:20 a.m.While I think those passages from the Koran are very inflammatory, they are part of the Koran. The bible as pointed out above has many also. Even so, I would think regardless they should be defendable by Free Speech, and Harassment Claims. That the students are allowed to protest such writings I also do not find objectionable.
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spellbreak
May 12, 2007, 4:58 p.m.Nearly all of the statements are false either in fact or in reason. Some are absurd.
It would be great if the clever college word-smiths actually understood the things they were putting up. However, it seems doubtful and the opportunity for them and many of the other students to have learned anything valuable is probably now lost.
The stunt could have had a good effect, in that it could have been used as a spring board for discussion.
It is unfortunate that the administration and the outraged groups took the reflex repression approach instead one of discussion and examination.
It might be worth saying that many popular examples about Islam repeat errors by people who are ignorant, misinformed or of dishonest intent. That applies to many so called Islamic leaders as it does to the Christian and Jewish commentors.
Of course, most of the examples do not require any understanding of Islam, for they are standard tricks of false propaganda.
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simonsez
May 12, 2007, 5:17 p.m.The idea that we do things because somebody wrote it in a book hundreds of years ago seems a little idiotic on the face of it.
The word "Scriptures" makes it sound so holy.
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Scorpiomeat
May 12, 2007, 5:26 p.m.What a bunch of religious blow hards. Jesus, Muhammad, Budda and all the rest of them were nothing more than mortal human beings, period. Every religion has used murder to further their cause, no matter how it was believed. Religion is the curse of Mankind. Here is a thought for you: WHAT IF GOD WERE THE SUN. No sun, no us. All other religious crap is just that, crap. Enjoy.
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truthiness
May 12, 2007, 5:26 p.m.when I was in high school, many eons ago, I spent a summer at tufts in a creative writing program. it seems somewhat ironic that they are now suppressing free expression in favor of offending nobody. or nobody loud anyway.
of course the constitution does guarantee that the govt and its funded agencies cant interfere with free speech. it doesnt guarantee you wont be offended.
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Hamlet
May 12, 2007, 8:07 p.m.On their Tuesday bit in the article they comment on the slavery numbers. They don't mention that the millions of slaves sold to the west were within a space of less than 300 years - and as late as the mid-1800s. So nobody comes out lookin' good on that one. Esp not when you look at European sex tourism to Eastern Europe and Asia, and the fact that marriage in the USA can be legal down to the age of 12 or 13 in many states - and is usually younger for the girl than the boy.
Its the ol' speck in your eye and beam in mine thing. We ALL need to work from the peaceful side. Oh and the "fighting vs sitting" sura is about being active in the community by using your wealth to benefit others and fight injustice, rather than sitting on your gold and using yourbusy high position to justify inaction and injustice!!
Nothing easier than misusing your religious books. whichever they are.
Notice FIRE doesn't support anybody working on peace, understanding, tolerance, bridgebuilding etc.
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truthiness
May 12, 2007, 8:10 p.m.heres a story from FOX (available elsewhere but I thought that would best) about an org. of moderate muslims formed after 911 to speak out against extremism
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icono1
May 12, 2007, 8:15 p.m.If someone from the Muslim student population had posted something so out of context and defaming as this article appears to be about the so called 'Christian' student population would the 'school' have reacted the same way?
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truthiness
May 12, 2007, 11:09 p.m.you really like talking about punishment. you arent by any chance, holding a whip or leather thing or something else nasty are you Lib, ol' girl?
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MRCOFFEECAKE
May 13, 2007, 3:21 p.m.I thought Christians are supposed
to turn the other cheek?
PUNISHED??
Sounds pretty desperate..
Like Hitler punished opposing points,
like Abu Ghraib good old collegiate punishing
or just sent off to their rooms
without their cell phones
kind of like a time out?
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Taganan
May 13, 2007, 12:10 a.m.No one should be punished for quoting any religion's holy book or the pronouncements of its leaders. That is the freedom of speech guaranteed by our Constitutuion. Only those who are so Politically Correct, that the only groups allowed to be offended with impunity are Christians and conservatives, punish free speech. They are not Bush supporters at Tufts, just the opposite, yet the article blames fascist Bush incorrectly, these are Leftists, Dems, who are violating free speech rights. As was said, how can Bush be responsible for the actions of his opponents. I guess it is just knee-jerk reaction to any wrong done by anyone, even the Left, to blame everything on Bush. Stupid Leftists can't even take responsibility for their own actions in violating rights, they have to blame Bush for what they do.
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CatholicRedneck
May 14, 2007, 1:52 p.m.Looking at the list of those who sank this article gives me the feeling that some of them didn't read it; instead, they reacted to the misleading title and description. If they would read it, I suspect they would retract their sink.
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