Freedom of Speech vs. The Government

by Betty Ann Reilly

A common misconception in today's society is when music artists are blamed for the consequences of the troubled youth of America. An example is when a couple of students shot up Columbine High School in April 1998. Some people blamed Marilyn Manson because the boys had a website dedicated to him.

The media, politicians, and parents cannot blame the music artists for the actions of other people. It is not up to the music artist to control who listens to their music. It's not even up to the government to control the music industry or who can and cannot listen to certain music. It is up to the parents to control what their children listen to.

It is not the government's job to control what we, as voters, want to listen to. But the government is taking our constitutional rights away from us with censorship. Censorship is taking up funds that could be used for more important things like health care and keeping our national parks away from companies who want to cut down their trees. Censorship in turns takes away our right to freedom of speech. Revoking our freedom of speech is not only unconstitutional, but also hypocritical. How is it hypocritical? It's hypocritical because the government is there to protect the Constitution and the people of this country. The First Amendment gives the people of this country the freedom of speech. And unless something has changed, music artists that are born in America are American citizens so they have a right to sing about whatever they want.