I think that most of the people who live in the United States have a frighteningly bad understanding of what "Constitutional Rights" actually are. Every time a person or a group is targeted, the screaming of "Constitutional Rights Violation!!!" starts up.
Though we have the right to Free Speech, it is tempered, and most people would say rightly so. If you call in a bomb threat to your school, you will be arrested. You can’t joke about hijackings in airports, you’ll be arrested. Do these go against our Constitutional rights? Only until you consider that you’re doing these things to individuals or privately-owned businesses and those people have their own rights to limit what you can or can’t do.
The internet is the same thing. You can scream about "FREE SPEECH" all you like, but if you break the Terms of Service on a blog or a message board, your posts will be removed. You might lose your account and there’s nothing that the ACLU or your attorney is going to be able to do about it.
Don Imus wasn’t fired to hinder his freedom of speech. If he wants to stand in Central Park on a soapbox and say the same things he’s been saying for the past, what?, 20 years? He can do that. He really can. And he won’t be arrested for speaking out. He was fired by a corporation. Chances are, if you’re employed, then your employer can fire you "at will" for whatever he or she wants – except for being a minority or a woman or having a handicap. Yes, that’s right, you can get fired for telling racist or sexist jokes around the water cooler. Think I’m wrong? How does Sexual Harassment apply to the First Amendment? It doesn’t, because you’re not in public and you’re not being arrested on public property for the words that came out of your mouth.
You have the right to freedom of speech, you do NOT have the right to a radio show.
Everyone feels persecuted. Because the civil rights movement in the 1960′s ensured "equal treatment" for blacks through the use of incentive programs (like affirmative action), now, less than a half-century later, whites are screaming that they want and need the same protections. I was reading about schools that are discontinuing their affirmative action programs having a hard time finding a large enough percentage of minority students to receive certain federal aid. Is this because they were letting in less qualified students? Maybe, but those students were graduating in similar numbers to the other students, and with comparable grades. All that means is that there are STILL some groups that need a leg up while they try to gain the measure of equality that they were denied for centuries.
But even this… no one has a Constitutional right to a college education, or to the college of their choice. You have to make it in. Even when affirmative action is in place, they’re not letting in the poorest of students simply based on their race or gender. You still have to earn your place, you’re just competing on a more equal footing.
Speaking of college.. I hear people say that Virginia Tech denied students their Second Amendment rights – to their detriment. That if students and teachers on that campus had been armed, things would have gone very differently indeed. But the thing is, no one is saying students can’t own guns. In fact, numerous students at VT owned guns – legally, including the gunman and one falsely accused. They were not allowed to bring their guns on campus, which is pretty much par for colleges.
I have a right to bear arms, which doesn’t specify guns, but I am not allowed to walk down the street carrying a sword on my back. Double-edged blades, switchblades and butterfly knives are illegal almost everywhere. In California, you can be fined or even arrested for carrying the (concealed) weapon known as a ball-point pen. Frankly, I’m not fussed that students aren’t allowed to carry weapons on campus any more than I’m fussed that they’re not allowed to drink on campus.
The US Constitution isn’t a rule book, it isn’t even the be-all, end-all of what we’re allowed to do, it’s essentially a contract between the government and its people. I am astounded to see so many people try to hide behind that document in a world where water isn’t allowed on airplanes and the primary argument against pursuing the data collection preceding an impeachment is "Well there’s less than 2 years left to this administration anyway." It’s this bizarre mish-mash of complacency mixed with righteous indignation and, maybe it’s just me, but it seems like people aren’t choosing their battles very wisely.
So what if an on-air radio personality who has passed the age of retirement got fired? Who cares if a student group was "derecognized" for making a bad joke? Why the hell can’t we let grieving friends and family mourn in peace without politicizing their tragedy? It sure seems to me that trying to protect people who don’t need or deserve it while hiding behind one of the most influential documents in the Western (democratic) world is one of the most cowardly acts that can be committed in the name of "freedom" and rights. Own up to your mistakes without claiming that "I thought I was entitled". That entitlement is one of the biggest downfalls to our society today.
But that, my friends, is a rant for another day.