Let’s Hope I Don’t Lose My Job Over This Post

This is a duplicate of a Facebook post I just made. It really had to go on Facebook or there would be no irony.

Quote from the attached AP Story:

“Meanwhile, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer accepted the resignation of Lee Landor, his deputy press secretary, after she called Gates a racist and referred to President Barack Obama as "O-dumb-a." Landor's comments on the social networking site Facebook were inappropriate, Stringer said in a statement. Landor defended her entries, but added: "It is understandable that a black man encountering police will be suspicious of racial profiling, based on the long history of racism in this country."

Seriously, you can now be fired (or, as they claim, “asked to resign”) for calling the president dumb or for stating that a person is a reverse racist? Isn’t that the very basis of free speech? The woman didn’t use any racial slurs or foul language, things that I would understand an employer being upset about. But political opinions?

Criticizing the president should be the MOST protected of ALL speech.

And yes, you can say that our speech is only protected from the government’s reaction; but for God’s sake, the woman worked for a local government and they fired her for speaking her mind on politics in her free time!

And, yes, I also find it offensive how the police tricked Henry Louis Gates Jr. into his “disorderly conduct” by luring him to a “public place” (his own front porch) so they could have grounds to arrest him. After all, yelling and screaming at police is only an arrestable offense if it takes place in public. If it is in the privacy of your kitchen, it is protected free speech.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090729/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_slurs_3