1) The tragic shooting in Tucson on 1/8
2) The much less tragic, but still newsworthy comments by our governor on 1/14
What are the implications of these events for "citizenship", understood in either its legal or its moral meaning?
In both of these events, their is one common idea involved within the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Freedom of Speech, and freedom of press. Being a citizen of the United States allows you to voice your opinion on any topic without a law against it. In the tragic
shooting, it shows that in politics, not everyone agrees with one person. Someone decided that they didn't like what a politician had to say and took it into their own hands to take care of it.
In the case of Lepage, freedom of speech also comes up. Lepage is able to voice any opinion that he wants. This opinion may not be what everyone agrees on, but because he is a citizen of the United States he can do this. Lepage also, threw the press, voices his opinions and makes statements that most people do not agree with, but he is allowed to do. In both these cases, it shows that even though the United States Constitution says we have the right to say what we want, if you do say what you want, you may be scolded, or in the Tucson case, shot. Some may say because of these examples, we may not have freedom of speech at all. If you want, you can go out in the press and say anything that you want, but you may be taking a risk. Someone may not agree with you and decided to take this issue into their own hands.
Both events deal with one common issue, freedom of speech. The Tuscan shooting proves that there are people in the world who don't agree with others views on politics, so they feel they should take the matter into their own hands. It's sad that people feel they need to take a life to get their political views across, but hopefully someday soon laws will help to make that more difficult.
ReplyDeleteIn Governor Lepage's case, freedom of speech also applies. He can voice any opinion he has, as long as it's not hurting anyone else. What he said may not have been what people wanted to hear, and he is definately being scrutinized for it, but it's 100% legal. The US constitution does say that you can say you have the freedom of speech, but other people do also have the right to criticize what has been said, and Lepage knew there would be much controversy over the comments he made.