Talk about free speech, the right to dissent and protest, American style.
The wonderful thing about living in AMERICA is that everyone, regardless of their level of competence or competency, is entitled under the U.S. Constitution certain civil liberties including the basic fundamental "right to be stupid." No kidding. You can rise to your own level of dumbness and stupidity.
Consider that a probative San Francisco broadcast reporter, Mike Sugarman, of KPIX, San Francisco, videotaped with his camera crew regarding the basic level of knowledge of geography by some of the "TEAM TIBET-SHANGRI-LA DALAI LAMA" protesters in San Francisco. And it was truly amazing what he discovered.
The single question that Mr. Sugarman asked each of the protesters, showing each one a map, was:
"WHERE'S TIBET on THE MAP?"
Click on and watch how these protesters answered. Talk about the "Dumbing Down of America."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ17W0M9K7Q
Borrowing Pogo, the cartoon character that some of these dumb San Franciscan proesters may understand, and spinning it Amercan creative news reporting style:
" I have seen the enemy; it is not China and the Chinaman; it is us. Yes, us."
Dumbheads. It's those of us who who don't read books anymore and understand the history of the world and reach out to all the other cultures and civilizations of the world, other than the Western warped world.
FREE SPEECH. FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 1st Amendment Rights. Yeah ! But where's the Social Responsibility ? Where's the basic fundamental civility ? Where's respectful discourse ? Where's the smarts to open your minds, and learn from others instead of hectoring others who may not look like you and think like you, or live their lives like you, based on your Western hambug and hubris (The two Hs) ?
My mother raised me with these words, " When you point your fingers at others; always remember, one finger may be pointed at others, but three are pointed back at you; and one is pointed to the MAN up there - "Tian." In Chinese, ""Tian" means Heavens. In the plural.
And this was from my Mommy. Not Confucius. :-)
