Congratulations to Raices
What a wonderful presentation last Saturday!
If you missed the show with music of India, you certainly missed something great. Well, maybe you wouldn’t have been able to get in the South Lawrence East School because it was standing room only.
This is the kind of performances that are very expenses to attend in Boston (plus parking) and Movimiento Pro Cultura brings to us every year. Each year they choose a different nationality to showcase and we always leave feeling that it was better than the last one.
Jose and Maria Figuereo, along with their committee work hard finding the talent and planning all year long. We congratulate them!
The funds raised through the attendance will be used to grant scholarships to several students and we always take pride in bringing you the winners in the next few weeks.
Some people can’t learn
If there’s a negative comment I have about that evening of Indian culture it is about the woman behind me, as well as all the people taking pictures with their cell phones. The woman behind me was also doing a video with the light from her flash permanently lit. She kept talking during the entire performance.
I tried to let her know that she was bothering everyone around her but, those people never learn that you are supposed to be quiet in a theatre. When it comes to cell phones, they should be confiscated at the entrance!
Freedom
Last week our editorial was dedicated to a troubling trend we are seeing in this country: We are losing our freedoms. Along with the freedom of worship which led the Pilgrims here, the Founding Fathers made the First Amendment to the Constitution for freedom of speech and freedom of the press the most important one.
That editorial dealt with the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers the NBA basketball team who made some disgusting racist comments in private and his girlfriend was taping him secretly. He was about to receive a national award from the NAACP for his good deeds towards the Black community and it was canceled when the tapes were made public.
While this country went through wars, tragedies, disasters and growth, that liberty remained almost sacred. During the horrendous years of segregation, people’s voices were respected – even the Ku Klux Klan received police protection whenever they gathered because it was their right to express their views, no matter how disgusting or ugly they were. We need to remember that the First Amendment was placed there to protect the ideas we disagree with, not the opposite. The ideas that everyone likes need no protection.
So, why is it that in recent years I am seeing so many people objecting and preventing others to express what they think. It started with religion and the prohibition of signing Christmas carols in public schools during the Christmas season. If there was one atheist parent among them, he or she could stop everyone else from celebrating a tradition that was not promoting any religion in particular.
Why is the voice of one person so powerful that can overshadow all others? If they don’t want their children to be “exposed” to that, they could be excused from school or simply don’t participate.
Some of the recent cases are demonstrations of a few in opposition of the selected guest speaker at their commencement exercises because of their views regarding politics, the world, abortion, religion – whatever. I remember the times when people stood up and turned around as a sign of protest but did not interfere with the speech. Those who agreed with the speaker were free to listen.
Students, alumni, and community members of UC Hastings College of the Law held a press conference asking the Chancellor to rescind the invitation to Janet Napolitcano, the former Department of Homeland Security Secretary because she represents the U.S. immigration policies during the Bush Administration.
Some students at Boston’s Suffolk University are protesting the decision by the university’s law school to invite Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham Foxman to be its commencement speaker on May 17. The students, cited Foxman’s opposition to U.S. congressional recognition of the 1915 Armenian massacre as a genocide, as well as his opposition to the building of a mosque and Islamic community center near Ground Zero in New York City.
Murray State University students protest against the choice of Sen. Mitch McConnell as the school’s commencement speaker. The reason is because Sen. McConnell votes against education every chance he gets such as federal aid to states that would have kept teachers and aides employed, extending low interest rates for federal student loans and he against Pell Grants.
Mary Eberstadt is a Catholic author who has written extensively about the culture of life, the damage of contraception, and the need for families to focus on raising children has been under the same pressure since her invitation to be the commencement speaker at Seton Hall University. The reasons: She takes stances against women who work, and in her article titled “The Child-Fat Problem,” lays blame for obesity in children to their working mothers.
New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte will be speaking at New England College and one student is opposing her presence due to her views on gay rights.
Barbara Bush was the subject of objections by Wellesley College students for having dropped out of college to get married and that made her the wrong role model for women.
When Jerry Springer, was invited to Northwestern University’s Law School, many students complained about his “trashy” TV show and disagreed with the decision. He ended up getting a rousing ovation after talking about how his family fled from Nazi Germany.
We are seeing an increase in protests by Muslims and even though they are still a very small group, we seem to cave immediately.
I believe that listening to people with different ideas from ours can only open our eyes to confirm that we are on the right track or to teach us how to deal with them. I would love to hear what Condoleezza Rice has to say but she declined the invitation from Rutgers University for what she generously said would detract from a happy day for all students. Their reason for the objection is that they consider her a “war criminal” for working under the Bush policies.
Any time we impose our way of thinking over others to the point of stopping them from expressing what they believe, we are losing more and more freedoms.
