Student Ad Provokes Discussion

LibrErica writes “”You can’t be all you can be if you’re dead.” That’s the tag line, set against a background of tombstones, of an ad placed in the Warwick Valley High School paper, The Survey. Even though the ad was paid for and approved by the paper’s faculty advisor and the school principal, others are upset that the ad appeared in a paper that is funded by taxpayer money. The local military recruiter admitted he was disappointed to see the ad, but adds, “But it’s free speech, ideas and thoughts like that, whether you agree or not, the military is fighting to protect.” The ad has been banned from future issues of the paper.
Read the article here“

October 19, 2005 by Amke Uncategorized 8

Turner says:

October 20, 2005 at 3:54 am

They could be more….
This may have been designed to promote discussion
but the sad fact is the discussion ended when they “pulled the add”. It appears to be a topic that can’t really be discussed.

After reading the article I’d say “brute force ” dominated the discussion. They could be more but I’m sure they are “all they can be.”

Tough to be a kid these days.

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Redcardlibrarian says:

October 20, 2005 at 7:44 am

Favorite line
My favorite line(s) comes from the school nurse:

“Maggie Adams, the Warwick High nurse, who has two sons who graduated from Warwick and are serving in the Marines, said she was outraged when she first saw the ad and has written a letter to the editor of The Survey.

“I understand the right to free speech and I support that. But I don’t think it’s appropriate for a school newspaper,” Adams said. “I refuse to believe what the ad says. I refuse to believe those people who choose to join the military, like my two sons, are wasting their lives.”

Uh huh. She understands the right to free speech. Until, of course, it is something she strongly disagrees with.

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Turner says:

October 20, 2005 at 8:49 am

Re:Favorite line
Good point….it is interesting that the add doesn’t suggest you are wasting your life but rather it suggests there is a possibility that you might be wasting your life…if I was “Gung Ho” “lets go and kill them” and really believed it…an add like that would be laughable…certainly not a problem …but if I wasn’t sure…well then there could be a problem…it might be something I couldn’t look at …I might want it gone…there would be something about my belief that is “not solid”…I would be threatened by the possibility that I was wasting my life (my sons lives).

Then I would want to use “brute force” and pull the add and end the conversation.

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Fang-Face says:

October 20, 2005 at 4:04 pm

Re:Favorite line

I understand the right to free speech and I support that. But . . .

Anybody who says “I believe in this, but . . . ” does not believe it it. And while members of the armed services are not wasting their lives, their dedication and convictions are being squandered by the Bush regime on another of America’s useless wars.

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Lis says:

October 20, 2005 at 8:28 pm

Re:Favorite line
It’s interesting to note that the school nurse is confused on this point, but the local military recruiter, also quoted in the story, seems quite clear on it: yes, this ad is a legitimate part of the free speech that the US military is there to protect.

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Durst says:

October 21, 2005 at 12:10 am

Re:Favorite line
“But I don’t think it’s appropriate for a school newspaper.”

Ummm, what better place to LEARN about free speech than at a school newspaper?

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Redcardlibrarian says:

October 21, 2005 at 12:17 am

Re:Favorite line
And, you’ll note, he had the appropriate response to speech he didn’t agree with: more speech.

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Lis says:

October 21, 2005 at 1:10 am

Re:Favorite line
Exactly. There’s all these other people running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and there’s this student and this military recruiter trying to engage in open, civilized political debate.

It ought to teach people something, but some of them seem determined to learn the wrong lesson.

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