CENSORSHIP - It is UN-American!

http://www.archives.gov/



"During the debates on the adoption of the Constitution, its opponents repeatedly charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the central government. Fresh in their minds was the memory of the British violation of civil rights before and during the Revolution. They demanded a "bill of rights" that would spell out the immunities of individual citizens. Several state conventions in their formal ratification of the Constitution asked for such amendments; others ratified the Constitution with the understanding that the amendments would be offered.


On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States therefore proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the Constitution that met arguments most frequently advanced against it. The first two proposed amendments, which concerned the number of constituents for each Representative and the compensation of Congressmen, were not ratified. Articles 3 to 12, however, ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures, constitute the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights."

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Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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Censorship is wrong - it imposes the viewpoints of some or even many on many or some regarding the qualities or content of a book or other form of expression.



Why do so many people fear ideas or viewpoints that are not their own? or in opposition to their own?

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

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"The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen."

~Tommy Smothers

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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

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~Voltaire

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"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

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~Noam Chomsky

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"To choose a good book, look in an inquisitor’s prohibited list."

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~John Aikin

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"Obscenity is not a quality inherent in a book or picture, but is solely and exclusively a contribution of the reading mind, and hence cannot be defined in terms of the qualities of a book or picture."

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~Theodore SchroederLiberty and the Great Libertarians; MHC-->

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"A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad."

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~Albert Camus