1st Amendment Rights

1st amendment rights of the bill of rights.

Chapter 2- First Amendment Rights

One of our most cherished rights here in this country is the right of religion, the right of press, and the right of expression. We would not be a nation today if we did not have those three rights, because if the government had the power to determine which religions were to practiced, and which religions to be banned, we wouldn’t have the pluralist society we have today. Every now and then, controversies arise from these three rights, which religion being the most seen issue today. Both liberals, and conservatives alike have argues, and debated over how narrow or broad this three rights mean, and to a certain extent do they apply. One of the reasons why we have these rights is because back in Europe in those times, religion was closely watched, and some religions weren’t tolerated, the people of Europe didn’t have the right to write about anyone they choose, and they surely didn’t have the right of expression, either in the form of a protest, or in the form of verbal expression. Those rights during those times in Europe, was strictly limited, and sharp to the point. And that is why I choose my second chapter to be about the first amendment rights, the rights held so dearly, however most controversial of all the rights. 

Right of religion, press, and expression are often the first things that politicians say when something comes up either battling for, or against them. Every now and then, you hear, or see some politician on the news talking about how extent the right of religion is, what religions are considered “safe” and which are not considered “safe”. You hear or see a politician talking about how what extent does our press have the right to talk about a certain person, organization or institution in our nation. And then you hear or see a politician talking about to what extent do the citizens of our nation can express their feelings or beliefs. Liberal or conservative, the issue comes into hand in both parties, because those rights can affect a current war, such as the unpopular Iraq and Afghanistan War, the closely watched religion of Islam, and the possible more extreme Muslims, and lastly, what expression is legal, or illegal. 

First I want to discuss the right of religion, the most heated of the three, and how the other two play into the controversy of the right of religion. As an American who watched the terror of 9/11, sitting in my fifth grade classroom, watching those two towers burn, I had to sit and think “are all Muslims bad, do they all want to terrorize us simply because we don’t share the same religion or ideology,” however now, as I am a grown person, I understand one thing, is that is not all Muslims are bad, just like not all Christians, and Jews are bad. Every religion on this earth is not perfect because we as man, are not perfect in anyway. Of course there will be extremist in every religion on this earth, that’s how the cookie crumbles, however we must no let that cloud our reason to determine what religion is good, and what religion is bad. It’s sad when you ask a little child about religion, and they reply “I’m believe in Jesus, he doesn’t, because he is a Muslims.” It’s sad to hear and see what the media, and how even parents are teaching their children. In our great nation, the right of religion is what it means, the RIGHT, which means you have the power to choose what you want to choose, even if its mean you want to be a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist etc. your right is your right, and no one can force you to choose something you don’t want to choose or believe in. 

I say that the right of religion is the most heated because of our current world. We have Islamic extremist calling for the death of the U.S. and of Israel, many plots foiled trying to do harm to the citizens of this country and other countries as well. However that can not cloud our judgment and reason when making decision on how broad the right of religion currently is, or how broad or narrow it could be in the near future.

The second right, the right of the press is perhaps more of a partisanship issue than anything else. Both the democratic and republican parties have problems when it  comes to the right of the press and how much the press can release. I remember back in my childhood during the Clinton administration, and when the Monica and Bill thing was in all the news, every channel, it was about the Lewinski gate. And the issue arose of the role of the press in handling this scandal, and I remember one of my family members saying “they should leave that man alone, what he does on his personal time should be handled with Hillary, not brought out in front of the nation.” That comment makes me wonder now because in my opinion, I want to know what the politicians, whom I sent to Washington is doing, personal or public, you was sent to do a public duty, not to be sent to commit infidelity. I say it affects both parties because every now and then, the media gets itself into a political fight with both parties. 

During the 2008 presidential election, I remember when Sarah Palin was railing on the media, especially when her daughter got pregnant, saying that they should stay out of their business because its personal, family issue, that should be talked about only within the family circle. Ok, I respect that, because I wouldn’t want my daughter’s face on every news network, and late night talk shows, so I totally respect her perspective because Barack Obama doesn’t want his children on TV because he doesn’t want CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS, ABC, and so on talking about his daughters, no one wants their daughters talked about. However comes the other issue, during the Democratic primaries, a video was released of Reverend Jeremiah Wright talking about god damning America, which was religious, not wrong in any sense, and how the media used a few seconds of a religious sermon for weeks of political use. For that instance, the media over stepped  the boundary of religion and politics, and the role of religion in presidential candidates. For those few seconds, the media went wild over it, because of a few seconds, not the entire sermon of what Wright said. And for that, the freedom of the press is also controversial because the press is like a young child, and the parents is like the government, political parties, etc. and you have a certain grip on them, not too tight, not too loose, and eventually you let them run wild, do what ever they want without restraint. And what the results are, are children who never listen, who has a way of their own, and a child who says what ever he/she wants, when he/she wants to say it. 

Reviews

[Jessie Sianodel]

I have no problem with someone else's religion. In fact, I think they're really interesting, to learn about them. One of my friends gets so annoyed at me because I just keep asking her questions about her religion. But what really annoys me is when people shove their religion in your face. I don't have a religion, so I'm agnostic. And when people start spouting ideas off about how atheists are devils and wiccans are witches it makes me think that maybe they didn't look very far into other religions to find what they truly agree to. And when they kind of dismiss the other religions around them as "not as good". I always wonder if they know anything about the other religion, because they really aren't that different.

Global Warming, Corruption, War, and how the president gets too much blame/credit? Bill Clinton said that the president gets entirely too much blame and too much credit. And he's right, there are two other branches...

[Ashley.M.E]

you forgot cap and trade and global warming xD.

[Brian]

Can anyone give me some more topics to write about, currently i have abortion, 1st amendment rights, health care, foreign policy, immigration,and gay marriage/dont ask don tell. I think i may need more to write about.