“Censor This” from the Points of View section in the October issue, is all about a girls view on how far we can stretch our freedom of speech. Right off the bat, Tiffany B starts overemphasizing the importance of the Founding Fathers. She compares them to God and talks about American sayings that I’ve never even heard of regarding them. She feels that because of the Founding Fathers we should be able to use harsh profanity in public. Tiffany explains that she thinks our freedom of speech is being taken away by getting in trouble for using such words. She states “Yelling expletives on public property causes physical harm to no one, and I have every right to do it.” What she failed to understand is that physical harm isn’t the only way to hurt a person. Such profanity could cause emotional harm to others and give them false senses of right and wrong. Tiffany talks about how she thinks that people should respect her right to express herself. What I’m wondering is if she shows that respect to people who express themselves back. If teens have the right to loudly swear on public property, don’t adults have the right to tell them off?

Tiffany does use some good facts in her article. She states a few lawsuits against people swearing on TV or radio. Although she believes that we have the right to express ourselves in any way we want, swearing on live television, especially on family shows should be stopped in some way and the only way to persuade some people is through money. That’s a cold hard fact. I respect Tiffany’s view, but the whole article seems like she’s just a teen trying to be a rebel. She makes continuous references to the Founding Fathers and how they would want us to swear in public, but have you ever heard any famous American quotes from them that used any of those words? I haven’t. To sum it up, Tiffany wrote this piece, which is well written- don’t get me wrong, to rebel against people who care what enters the ears of their children.