On Politics 6/30/09: A Documentary Review

A minor deviation from the usual today, in that I have a film review for everyone. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to view, again through the magic that is TiVo, a documentary on HBO entitled "Shouting Fire: Stories From The Edge of Free Speech". As one might guess, the film centered on the often inflammatory, frequently debated subject of what you can say and where or when you can say it.

More interestingly, the film, conceived and created by Oscar nominee Liz Garbus, interviews a number of people with recent First Amendment experiences (Ward Churchill, Debbie Almontaser, Chase Harper), as well as revisiting previous historical episodes of consequence (McCarthyism, etc.). The production also enhances its' comprehensive approach by inviting people from both sides of these recent cases to appear on the program. In watching and listening to some of these guests, I'm often reminded of something my father once told me" "If you let stupid people keep talking, they reveal themselves to be what they - stupid."

I have a number of thoughts on some of the various episodes revisited here. First, regarding Mr. Churchill, the former professor at the University of Colorado who was terminated for his post-9/11 remarks alluding to the United States' previous actions coming back to haunt them. Hearing him recount the course of action that his comments embarked he and the university on, I had the phrase "tone deaf" continuing to pop up in my brain. One must be intelligent enough to know that in the hours immediately after 9/11 he would be the subject of scrutiny for anything portraying our attacked country in an unpleasant light, although on a delayed basis in this case. In Mrs. Almontaser's case, not reacting fastly enough to a false report of supporting the production of a t-shirt (yes, a t-shirt) making a call for inciting terrorist action in NYC cost her a principal's role she had been specifically recruited to occupy. Young Mr. Harper's case, of wearing a t-shirt sporting hateful verbiage on it (again with the t-shirts; the only offensive shirt I remember wearing in my youth was for D.A.M.M...Drunks Against Mad Mothers, with the x'ed out granny in the circle holding a rolling pin in her hand; oh, to be 19 again) became another test in the limitations a school system can place on free speech within the school system.

All of these incidents noted above remind me of what has long been said about free speech and the First Amendment - that it order for it to succeed, you must be willing to die for the right of another person to say something that you vehemently disagree with. In the current time we live in, it appears to have morphed to say that free speech covers whatever I like, and nothing I disagree with. The mass arrest of protesters in NYC for the Republican convention, shown in the film, doing nothing other than peacefully marching, is a blatant example. The calling out and scapegoating of anyone disagreeing with the Iraq War from inception on, labeling those who protested as "disloyal" or "Un-American" is further proof. For a country founded on liberty and freedom, it's a very odd thing to restrict those beliefs when claiming to be fighting to preserve them.

See the film, repeating, I'm certain, many times via the vast and numerous networks of HBO. You may agree or disagree with the people shown, but I guarantee you'll find it thoughtful and provoking.

With the horrific reality shows and dreadful other crap shown on network TV, this is a most welcome respite.