Amendment Amendments
Its starting to look like the nation that wrote the book on freedom of the press is going to have to start re-reading some of its own history.
Reporters Sans Frontieres, which translates to Reporters Without Borders, has released its survey of 168 nations and their records on journalistic freedom. Freedom of the press is an important measure of a nation's true liberty and ability to function as an honest and open democracy.
The United States, which ranked #17 on the list of 168 when the list first began in 2002, has now slipped to #53. The USA is tied in that position with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. It almost seems difficult to believe that the United States is no better at journalistic freedom than Croatia, which used to be part of Yugoslavia.
Perhaps even more interesting are the nations higher on the list of press freedoms than the USA. The list includes Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, Czech Republic, Canada, Sweden, Namibia, Panama, Taiwan, Israel and dozens of others. Finland, by the way, is number 1.
And because you're curious, below the USA are Uruguay, Kuwait, Brazil, Haiti, Thailand, Egypt. Libya, Cuba and more than 100 more. North Korea is dead last.
So what does it all mean? It means the United States, which should be leading the way in press and journalism freedoms, finds itself in the middle of the pack. Graded on a curve, our place on the list might merit no better than a C+. I doubt the founding fathers believed any of our essential freedoms warranted a C+.
The change of place is blamed on security measures and concessions made necessary by the way in Iraq and terror concerns. But at what point do our fears force us to stop becoming who WE are, and instead become who THEY are? Are we so afraid of losing our way of life that we are willing to give up and give away our way of life? Where is the line that we should not cross?
We are giving up and giving away our essential rights and freedoms without a whimper. We are handing over to our government what the terrorists could not steal from our grasp... Our ability to live freely as Americans, celebrating the rights and freedoms granted in our constitution.
Never in previous generations have there been so many efforts to DENY rights in the form of constitutional amendments as there have been in the past few years. It seems bureaucrats have lost sight of the fact that our Constitution and Bill of Rights were drafted to give us rights and freedoms, not to deny them. Yet that is a constant drumbeat in Washington.
A hundred years from now, will American school children open history books and read of a United States that is foreign to them... one that represents theories and philosophies will have long been given up and forgotten? Will they even be allowed to read of the basic freedoms that they no longer enjoy? And will the future hold another revolution... when people from these shores will set sail for a distant land to cast off the shackles of repression, in search of the freedoms that we once enjoyed?
I'm glad I won't be here to see the answer.
http://www.rsf.org/
Reporters Sans Frontieres, which translates to Reporters Without Borders, has released its survey of 168 nations and their records on journalistic freedom. Freedom of the press is an important measure of a nation's true liberty and ability to function as an honest and open democracy.
The United States, which ranked #17 on the list of 168 when the list first began in 2002, has now slipped to #53. The USA is tied in that position with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. It almost seems difficult to believe that the United States is no better at journalistic freedom than Croatia, which used to be part of Yugoslavia.
Perhaps even more interesting are the nations higher on the list of press freedoms than the USA. The list includes Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, Czech Republic, Canada, Sweden, Namibia, Panama, Taiwan, Israel and dozens of others. Finland, by the way, is number 1.
And because you're curious, below the USA are Uruguay, Kuwait, Brazil, Haiti, Thailand, Egypt. Libya, Cuba and more than 100 more. North Korea is dead last.
So what does it all mean? It means the United States, which should be leading the way in press and journalism freedoms, finds itself in the middle of the pack. Graded on a curve, our place on the list might merit no better than a C+. I doubt the founding fathers believed any of our essential freedoms warranted a C+.
The change of place is blamed on security measures and concessions made necessary by the way in Iraq and terror concerns. But at what point do our fears force us to stop becoming who WE are, and instead become who THEY are? Are we so afraid of losing our way of life that we are willing to give up and give away our way of life? Where is the line that we should not cross?
We are giving up and giving away our essential rights and freedoms without a whimper. We are handing over to our government what the terrorists could not steal from our grasp... Our ability to live freely as Americans, celebrating the rights and freedoms granted in our constitution.
Never in previous generations have there been so many efforts to DENY rights in the form of constitutional amendments as there have been in the past few years. It seems bureaucrats have lost sight of the fact that our Constitution and Bill of Rights were drafted to give us rights and freedoms, not to deny them. Yet that is a constant drumbeat in Washington.
A hundred years from now, will American school children open history books and read of a United States that is foreign to them... one that represents theories and philosophies will have long been given up and forgotten? Will they even be allowed to read of the basic freedoms that they no longer enjoy? And will the future hold another revolution... when people from these shores will set sail for a distant land to cast off the shackles of repression, in search of the freedoms that we once enjoyed?
I'm glad I won't be here to see the answer.
http://www.rsf.org/
posted by Bill at
2:17 PM
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