Oak Creek (Wisconsin) High School teacher James Buss was recently arrested for a comment he made on the political blog site, Boots and Sabers. In the post at issue, Buss examines the flaws of the education system, focusing on his school district in West Bend, Wisconsin. He criticizes the high pay of teachers relative to their workload and argues that such disparity is unfair to students. Buss goes on to praise the Columbine High School students who, he argues, fought back against the system.
Local people disagree over whether Buss should be charged for disorderly conduct and use of communication systems in an unlawful manner. Currently, he is suspended from teaching. Internet speech is largely unregulated by federal authority. Even if federal laws were enacted to regulate Internet speech, Buss's comments would likely find protection under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects the freedom of speech. Critics might condemn his opinions, but Buss does not necessarily pose an imminent threat as a result of his unconventional views.
Over the past decade, the United States has lived in a fabricated state of fear which has caused the American public to grow overly-sensitive to radical concepts. When fear reigns, our basic freedoms become neglected. Every medium’s material is so analyzed that the real message is ignored.
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