More Opinions Columnists

• V.B. Price: Preserving our water is greatest challenge the city, state faces
• Jeffry Gardner: End of The Trib is part of the demise of serious journalism
• Katherine Augustine: Time with friends from Japan provides treasured memories

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Recently a lad wearing a John Edwards T-shirt to school was suspended. Why? Because the faculty couldn't stand the idea of John Edwards becoming president?

That explanation would be about as accurate as Hillary Clinton's legal billings. For all we know, teachers and administrators at that particular school would leap tall buildings were Edwards to bring his hair-performance team to the Oval Office.

Instead, it seems the principal was enforcing a major part of the school district's long-standing dress code. It's important to note this, because the student's parents are considering suing the school for stifling their offspring's right to free expression. Of course.

The reports I read on this event failed to mention whether the parents felt that a recent court ruling that forces churches to hire gays, lesbians and variations on that theme was a violation of their religious rights. Nor did the parents say whether the Boy Scouts of America's right to free association is violated when atheists or homosexuals sue to become members or leaders.

That darned old First Amendment is just a problem for progressives. All right, there I go again with an accuracy problem. It's no problem at all for progressives - until someone disagrees with them.

Somehow it's fine for MoveOn.org, funded largely by a single donor, to lobby Congress - extort is probably more accurate - or air political ads or insult a commanding general. But it's an outrage for the National Rifle Association to represent its 6 million members and their rights under the Second Amendment.

It's just swell for NARAL Pro-Choice America or the National Organization for Women to take to the streets or airwaves, but who on God's green Earth told the Christians they could organize?

But the fun really begins on our campuses - our fair bastions of higher learning, guardians of open minds and free speech! Well, not so much.

Columbia University serves as a microcosm for America's campuses today, where the left seems to believe the First Amendment applies solely to them.

On one hand, the mouthpiece of a brutal regime, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is formally invited to speak by Columbia's president. Yet when Columbia's Young Republicans organization invited Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist to speak, they received death threats, and Gilchrist was assaulted on stage - under the approving eyes of school administrators. One student leader self-righteously claimed Gilchrist had no First Amendment rights.

The ugly truth is that American progressives have embraced the same "free speech" practices - from codes to enforcement - that made Chairman Mao so popular. He loved his nation's liberties - and silenced anyone who didn't "enjoy them," let's say, as much as he did.

For the record, I support MoveOn.org's right to insult anyone it pleases. The more mainstream America sees this group for what it is, the better.