Free Speech after 9/11

I am taking a Global Studies class about the United States and the third world, we are reading a book called Tourists of History, the author claims that the American people do not see themselves connected to or apart of our history. For example, we only see the tragedy in history, like with 9/11, we don't see the events or actions of our government that would have caused such an attack. One of the chapters I just read was about the media response to 9/11, and how speech was 'censored' because everyone was being extra cautious not to offend or bring up memories of the attack. Companies pulled ads that had anything to do with crashing or attacks, TV shows or movies that had images of the twin towers were not shown, or postponed. The country was in shock, and the media seemed to be censoring their speech so as not to offend. I think this is interesting int he context of free speech, because it was like censorship, but it was not imposed, it was willingly done out of respect.

Segregation 'free speech threat'

"Further education colleges are being warned that "segregated communities" on campuses can cause conflict and stifle free speech."
I was looking for a blog topic so I Googled free speech in Google news, an article came up on BBC news about colleges that are worried about extremist groups on campus. The article says that schools of higher education may be a risk of "serious but not widespread" threat from "Al-Qaeda-influenced terrorism". A consultation paper warns that segregated communities, like extremist groups, can be dangerous to the college community.

"Attitudes and beliefs may be reinforced so that there is little opportunity for dissent, free-thinking or the dilution of commonly held preconceptions about issues within the segregated community or wider communities."

The fear is that extremist groups will form and take hold of students not allowing them to speak up for themselves or disagree. I think this is pretty silly. I understand the fear of Al-Qaeda influenced group son campus, but I don't think it would be right to restrict the formation of campus groups out of fear of terrorism.

"The focus on colleges is part of an assessment of how extremists gather recruits - with the belief that they target young people in "prison, youth clubs, schools, universities and further education colleges".

"The consultation, The Role of Further Education Providers in Promoting Community Cohesion, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism, suggests that colleges should be promoting free speech, emphasizing shared values, discouraging segregation and stopping bullying and intimidation."

Today in class we seminar-ed about the readings. My group had a bit of a rough time getting the conversation started, we began be talking about the questions that one of the readings posed. Once we started talking about the questions, we got onto the topic of what to restrict as free speech. We each had some ideas about what we thought should be restricted, but then we all thought that once that one thing was restricted, what was to stop restricting something else. We decided that it was a slippery slope, it would be hard to just say that this one thing was restricted without being easily able to add onto the list.

First Real Post

First blog about free speech...
I was watching the Colbert Report last night and I noticed that the guest was talking about the first amendment and free speech. The guest, I forget his name, was a judge who had written a book, called "A Nation of Sheep" about how the American people behave like sheep in a flock. He thinks the government is over steeping their bounds and going against the first amendment. He argued that they are taking away our right to free speech by criminalizing things that people are saying. I thought this was interesting seeing as I am beginning this class on free speech! I have a feeling I will be paying more attention to issues of free speech that I might not have noticed before taking this class.