Newspaper Page Text
The Lee County Ledger, Wednesday, October 5, 2011, Page 11A
The Only Valid Censorship is the
Right of People Not to Listen
Special to the Ledger
By Kate Scarmalis
“I might not agree with
what you say, but I will
defend to my death your
right to say it.”
Remember these words?
I learned this priceless
phrase in elementary
school from a teacher who
gave more attention to the
“Three ‘R’s” than she ever
did to my sense of self es
teem. Admittedly, I didn’t
always appreciate her, but I
did listen to her. Very early
on, we were taught to value
those rights that Ameri
cans fought for and died to
establish.
On that note, a conversa
tion took place in the wait
ing room of my dentist last
week. Someone raised the
subject of whether Michele
Bachmann had a chance of
becoming the Republican
candidate for the office of
President.
Simply it began. In my
mind it ended up as a prob
ing analysis of our nation’s
1st Amendment rights.
Enter Kate. And her
mouth. Those who know
me well understand that
there is no filter between
my brain and my mouth.
Stuff just comes out.
I kicked in with how
I had always wondered
about the fact that any fe
male candidate would face
issues that no presidential
candidate had ever faced
before her. The husband of
the first female president
of the United States would
play a unique role.
I started with this: What
if one of our past first
ladies decided to feature
herself on a regular talk
show, like “The View”?
Wouldn’t the networks
love it! On the other hand
the White House staff
would go into overdrive to
go over what she could or
could not discuss.
No one would be sur
prised at this. Women are
used to aligning them
selves to their husband’s
career needs. First Ladies
need to be careful. Do you
remember when Nancy
Reagan caused a furor over
- - what? She outraged the
liberatzi by ordering a set
of china for state dinners.
Shocking.
Let’s reverse the sce
nario. Good husbands do
not go out of their way to
throw interference across
their wives’ career paths.
On the other hand. I’m not
certain that it would occur
to them to watch every
“P” and every “Q”. They
are more used to speaking
their minds.
What if it became neces
sary to monitor every
thing that the president’s
husband said and did? How
would you go about telling
The First Dude to “Put a
sock in it!”?
So there I am mouthing
off, just offering a new
take on a new situation,
just for the fun of it. That
and I wanted to distract
myself from the anguish
of listening to the high-
pitched drilling taking
place in the dreaded “back
room”.
As I finished my little
anecdote the room grew
suddenly still. One little
old lady took me into her
Submitted Photo
Lee County Primary School Kindergarten Good Citizens
Front row: Annalee Rayment, Bailey Muggridge, Cara Dincler, Demario Haire, Autumn McSwain.
Back row: Bethany Ditty, Jacey Williams, Emmalee Freeman, Leah Hoover, Jayita Saha, Carter
Singletary.
Submitted Photo
Lee County Primary School First Grade Good Citizens
Front row: Lia Wiemer, Bobby Carrington, Rachel Saunders, Gavin Bailey. Back row: Brayden
Proctor, Kloe Marshall, Tara Dean, Devon Smith, Ty Cook, Abbey Weeks. Not pictured: Nicholas
Wingate.
confidence,
whispering,
“The lady
on the other
side of you
is a huge
fan of both
Michele
and Marcus Bachmann.”
This sweet little lady is
what we ordinarily call
“a dear”. In her mind she
really was trying to smooth
over what she saw as a
bumpy social situation. In
the end there was no time
to reply as the nurse came
to usher me back to my own
private draconian ordeal.
On the way home, trying
to pound some feeling
back into my jaw, I began
to chew over the earlier
exchange in the dentist’s
outer office.
One of two things had
taken place. “The Dear”
may have been afraid that
I would begin to dissect
some of Marcus Bach-
mann’s controversial,
yet very public opinions.
That certainly was not
my intention. Should Ms.
Bachmann receive the GOP
nomination she won’t have
me to worry about. The
cadre of progressive media
is already sharpening
their fangs, smelling lib
eral amounts of Bachmann
blood on the water.
The other likelihood was
that my speech may have
that differed from those
of her friend, possibly “of
fending” other people in the
room.
Think about this for a
minute. We are supposed
to do to ourselves what no
other entity in this country
has the right to do. No one
has the power to censor our
opinions. The way things
have been going these days.
no one has to. Since the era
of political correctness has
become reality, people have
actually learned to silence
themselves. And to police
each other.
Recently the comedian.
Bill Maher, tried to salvage
his crumbling career at the
expense of Michelle Bach
mann and Sarah Palin by
referring to them as a pair
of boobs. Disgusting!
Do I find such speech
uttered by this sad sack
offensive? You can bet your
bottom dollar that I do.
Would I defend his right
to expose us all to such gar
bage? Though I cringe in
face of such trash talk, by
principle, I would give my
life to defend his right to
voice his opinion. What is
right for one is right for all.
Back in the dentist’s of
fice there was no way for
“The Dear” to understand
which of my opinions may
have come forth. It didn’t
matter. I was expected to
keep them to myself simply
because someone may have
declared that they had been
“offended”.
You know what? This
offends me. Anyone who
believes in our God-given
rights as they were spelled
out in our Bill of Rights
should be offended as well.
In the words of our first
president, “If the freedom
of speech is taken away
then dumb and silent we
may be led, like sheep to
the slaughter.” George
knew his stuff.
Make Silence the Enemy!
Kate Scarmalis teach
ers English to Speakers of
Other Languages in the Lee
County School System. She
has a B.A. in Education
and an M.A. in Forensic
Psychology.
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14 Year Old Red Wolf
Dies at Chehaw Park
Carpet Cleaning Special
Special to the Ledger
Chehaw is saddened to
announce the death of its
oldest red wolf, Ol’ Maw.
At 14 years old, she passed
away of natural causes dur
ing the night of September
27. Old Maw was born on
the 9th of May, 1997. She
came to Chehaw from the
North Carolina Zoological
Park in 2003. Red wolves
typically live up to 14 years
in captivity.
Ol’ Maw has helped
populate the captive popu
lation of red wolves and
was one of the first breed
ing females in the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service’s
effort to reintroduce the
red wolf into the wild at
Alligator River Wildlife
Refuge. This program has
proved to be exceptionally
successful. The program
centers on wild wolves that
foster pups that were born
in captivity. Using this
method, the survivability
of captive born animals
released into the wild is
significantly higher than
traditional release methods.
Ol’ Maw is survived by
87 pups, grand-pups, and
great-grand-pups in zoos
and preserves across the
country.
Red wolves are one of
two wolf species found in
the United States and were
common throughout the
southeast. Unfortunately,
by the 1960s their popula
tion was virtually gone.
They were officially listed
as endangered in 1973. At
that time, an effort was
made to round up as many
of these wild animals as
possible. A total of 17 pure
bred red wolves were found
in Texas and Louisiana
and 14 of those became
the breeding stock for the
current population. In 1980
the species was listed as
extinct in the wild. By the
end of the decade, there
were enough captive red
wolves to begin looking
at releasing them into the
wild. There are now over
100 red wolves successfully
living in the wild and over
200 captive animals living
as ambassadors across the
nation’s zoos.
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