Let freedom ring
The right to express your individuality doesn’t come cheap
CLIFF HICKS is a junior
news-editorial and English
major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist.
If you think freedom comes cheap,
think again.
A lot of people in this free nation
of ours don’t want freedom. They say
they do, and for them that’s enough,
but they don’t want true freedom.
See, being free means forever
being uncomfortable.
A lot of this came to mind in the
recent wave of sexual
harassment/abuse cases that are cover
ing the world, and I sat down and
thought about what’s driving the
human race to become this way. I can
only come up with one conclusion.
It’s easier to be in a benevolent
dictatorship than in the pure state of
freedom.
Look at yourself in the mirror and
ask yourself: “Do I want to be free?”
Are you willing to stand on the
corner and watch as the Ku Klux Klan
marches down the street, parading
their hate-mongering ways to anyone
who will listen?
Are you willing to stand and
watch someone bum the flag someone
in your family died protecting?
Are you willing to see propaganda
by those who claim the Holocaust was
nothing more than a media charade
cooked up to con the American public
into backing the war?
Are you willing to listen as a per
son who has no obvious problems tells
you that there is no such thing as
“drug abuse,” merely careless people?
Are you willing to look at the per
son with a blue mohawk, pierced
tongue and the words “Bom To Kill”
tattooed on his forehead die same way
you look at die person in the suit when
hiring someone for a job that doesn’t
involve customer relations?
Your freedom isn’t so comfy now,
is it?
America’s forgotten the ;
price is has to pay for its 1jy
freedom. Freedom is about the
right to be unpopular or even just 1
dead wrong.
In 1993, a graduate student here 1
on this very campus was forced 1
to remove a picture of his wife in a I
bikini from his desk because some /i
students found it “offensive.” They m
claimed it was sexual harassment ||
Do you know what the real M
definition of offensive is? It’s /||
something that someone is /ff|
unable to stomach. / J1t
It means that some- j£,
thing somewhere
inside of them is
unable to stand up ^
to a little criticism or If
degradation. You
mean to tell me that V
a man’s picture of V jflfr
his wife on his desk CL l£k
is offensive? TI
I don’t care if 411^1
there was a nude 4 Mpjjpy
painting of his wife
on his desk. Is it
really any of your I
damn business? /
We’re talking about y, *
personal freedoms V | \ V...
and, to some extent, \| k %
Let’s get one %
thing straight right \
now-art is another \ jKS||j
form of freedom.
The minute you
start saying what is and is not accept
able is the moment you start becom
ing a censor. The moment you start
becoming a censor is the moment you
start down the path to mental dictator.
Teachers are trying to stress “posi
tive reinforcement” across the nation
now, and they’re trying to force it into
the rest of the world, and I will not
have it.
I have an unquestionable right to
insult you, your religion, your taste,
your ideals, your hopes, and your
dreams - the very fabric of your
being. And you have the right to do
the same to me.
I can take it; why can’t you?
People talk about a “conducive
learning environment.” They strive to
make everything into a happy little
world where students are sheltered
from life and have their heads patted
when they do good.
Bad news, folks, it ain’t all rose
gardens and Christmas presents.
There are people you don’t like
out in the world. Heck, there are peo
ple I don’t like out in the world. But
they’ve got just as much right to be
there as the rest of us.
The jerks, the bigots, the liars, the
burnouts and the dopeheads. The per
verts, the anti-socials, the commu
nists, the totalitarians, the pomogra
phers, the Satanists and the good little
Christians who went to Sunday
School every week. The hot-tempered
egotists, the quiet types in the comer,
the rabble-rousers and the bom
bureaucrats.
This land is their land; this land is
my land.
Being free means I should always
be able to tell someone they look
attractive and not have to worry about
being slapped with sexual harassment
charges.
Americans are working longer anc
longer hours, and we have run out of
places to date. We’re dating those we
work with more and more. That’s just
the way it is.
Sexual harassment laws are bound
together with words like “unwel
come” and “pervasive.” Well, “perva
sive” would still have Socrates drink
ing hemlock and “unwelcome”
describes my very presence to most
women. Someone asking you out on a
date is not sexual harassment, no mat
ter how
unattractive you rind the person.
You can define these words a mil
lion ways, and they still mean nothing.
Sexual harassment should be what
it is supposed to be - a way to prevent
bosses from treating their employees
favorably or unfavorably based on
sexual relations.
What sexual harassment should
not be is used as a way for people to
try and get comfortable by removing
the things they don’t like from the
world. As I’ve said, being free doesn’t
mean being comfortable.
I want this nation uncomfortable. I
want it saying unngs
without thinking,
and I want a world
that says what it
means, not one that
tries to put rose-col
ored glasses on
everyone and tells
them that every
thing’s going to be
okay. It’s not, but you
can argue that with
me - in my world,
anyway.
Conflict is a
good thing.
It drives people
and gives them
focus. You cannot
have good without
having evil; there is
no day without night
There is no one with
out the other, there
fore it does no good
to try and get rid of one.
By saying something is “offen
sive,” you try to classify everyone into
one moral majority and there is no
such thing. There is no one I trust
enough to make a moral decision for
me. Do you really think there’s anyone
1 who you trust to make that decision
for you?
Do you really want a benevolent
dictator to decide what is and is not
morally acceptable to the masses?
If I’m telling dirty jokes with col
leagues and someone happens to over
hear and is offended by it, I’m sup
posed to be at fault? Someone is lis
tening in on my conversation. Maybe I
should file for intrusion of privacy.
They weren’t invited in the conversa
tion, were they? Oh, but then, I could
u-—
The jerks, the
bigots, the liars, the
burnouts and the
dopeheads. The
perverts, the anti
socials,
communists, the
totalitarian, the
pornographers... 77to
/a« J £sr ffeir land;
this land is my land.
get sued tor bias because ... do you
see my point?
Kill all the lawyers and purge our
collective souls of this taint
We’re a legal-dominated society
and someone will sue me for saying
that.
In Demovich v. Great Falls, a clerk
claimed she was sexually harassed
when her colleagues, mostly female,
passed around smutty pictures. No
one other than her complained and
none of the pictures were directed
solely at her. A Montana commission
ruled in her favor. How ridiculous can
we getr
We’re
back to this
“hostile
environ
ment” thing
and people
being
uncomfort
able. Isn’t it
incredible
how rele
vant books
like
Orwell’s
“1984”
become
later in life?
Ask your
self if you
really want
there to be
a thought
police - do
you really
want someone making sure that no
one is ever offended anywhere, even if
it costs you your freedom?
Do you want to be an automaton?
Is your comfort that important?
Are your convictions in your
moral beliefs, your spiritual code, •'
your sexual attractions and mental
confidence really so low that they
cannot withstand die slings and
arrows of outrageous fortunes? If you
cannot withstand a few words, then I
question how strong you really are at
all
Say no to die thought police - say
yes to freedom.