free speech in america

it seems less and less likely (on thursday of last week something very disturbing happened to me at work. i went to ask someone a WORK RELATED question and he said to me (in a semi-kidding way), ‘i don’t think i want to talk to you anymore’. i asked him why and he said he had overheard me speaking with someone else about my choice for senator in the connecticut primary. he then started a rather political discussion (HE started it not me). it became quite clear to me he wasn’t kidding about not wanting to answer my WORK RELATED question. he was seriously angry with me i asked him if he thought the king and his court were doing a good job. i brought up many examples and he agreed, the king was doing a lousy job (how could he NOT agree. the king IS doing a lousy job). however, he was incensed i voted for ned lamont and not da liebs. i said i voted for ned first and foremost because i was against the war in iraq. i stated i was against BOTH sides in the israel lebannon war. i said innocents were being killed everywhere. he just couldn’t fathom what i was saying. it was making him mad. it was making him mad i didn’t want people to be killed. he thinks the king and his court are supporting the people of israel. little does he know the king and his court don’t give a flying yoo hoo about the people of israel. they believe in the rapture and when the rapture comes, the people of israel will be wiped out along with all of the OTHER non believers. if not that, the king and his court want the oil in the middle east. they don’t give two sh**s about ANY of the peoples in the middle east (why aren’t we doing something about the wars and atrocities in some of the african countries????????), they care about wealth and power (and the rapture). the person at work even went so far as to say he wished everyone in france would get wiped off of the face of the earth. why? why even say something like THAT?

i walked away because i had enough. i wanted to question him more about his world beliefs. did he feel like he felt ONLY because he was a jew? is that fair? aren’t there all sorts of OTHER considerations to take into account? i was afraid to ask. work wasn’t the proper forum for our discussion anyway. would i have asked him OUTSIDE of work? i don’t know and that is bothering me too.

we can’t have peace if our minds are closed to others. it has to start somewhere. it has to start with me AND YOU. it has to start now)
The land of the free - but free speech is a rare commodity

You can say what you like in the US, just as long as you don't ask awkward questions about America's role in the Middle East Henry Porter Sunday August 13, 2006 The Observer
It used to be said that academic rows were vicious because the stakes were so small. That's no longer true in America, where a battle is underway on campuses over what can be said about the Middle East and US foreign policy.
Douglas Giles is a recent casualty. He used to teach a class on world religions at Roosevelt University, Chicago, founded in memory of FDR and his liberal-inclined wife, Eleanor. Last year, Giles was ordered by his head of department, art historian Susan Weininger, not to allow students to ask questions about Palestine and Israel; in fact, nothing was to be mentioned in class, textbooks and examinations that could possibly open Judaism to criticism.
Students, being what they are, did not go along with the ban. A young woman, originally from Pakistan, asked a question about Palestinian rights. Someone complained and Professor Giles was promptly fired.
Leaving aside his boss's doubtful qualifications to set limits on a class of comparative religion - her speciality is early 20th-century Midwestern artists such as Tunis Ponsen (nor have I) - the point to grasp is that Professor Giles did not make inflammatory statements himself: he merely refused to limit debate among the young minds in front of him...........