I'm trying to decide whether the fuss over the Kansas teen tweeting, on her own time, that the governor sucks, and then being forced to apologize by her school, is authoritarian or, considering how the over reaction has played out, is amusing. I think I am leaning towards the former.
Was the the tweet potty mouthed? Perhaps, but I've heard worse on TV. Was it disrespectful? Perhaps as there are more mature ways to get your point across. Rude? I suppose if you consider respect for authority to be all-important. But I don't recall that the Constitution or Bill of Rights demanding respect for authority, quite the contrary actually. Should the governor's office or school principal gotten involved to force her to apologize? NO!!!!! The First Amendment protects all citizens, including this blog, from being censored by the government and their representatives, which includes the governor's aide and the school principal. Both over reacted. Our Constitution guarantees free speech, even for 18-year-old girls who disagree with their governor. You may not like the way she said it but it was her right to say it.
On the other hand, there was a failure in that this student didn't know how to get her view across other than a short tweet. If anything, the school failed in using the tweet to demonstrate the proper way to articulate your gripes to a government official beyond saying "you suck" (I recall in 5th or 6th grade class projects where we wrote letters to various city officials). So instead of teaching the student how to write a letter explaining her position, the school gave her a lesson in censorship and constitutional violations at a time when many are beginning to question whether we have already given away too many rights our ancestors fought for. The US is not Chile or China after all. Worse, we're having a debate where those in government and media wonder if they should call for an apology because the way the complaint was phrased offended some. Brilliant.
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