Somerstein 2
Cerena J. Somerstein
Instructor: Jeff Sturges
English 101
13 November 2004
Student Generated Writing Assignment #8
What Ridiculous Law will They Think of Next?
Imagine this: A law that restricts people to wear their hair in ponytails, or perhaps a law that tells parents when to feed or bathe their children. Most American citizens would agree that the above laws are absurdly foolish, and that they are an invasion of privacy and a violation of legal rights. At this current time there are laws that prohibit some CD’s to be sold to underage adolescents due to their graphic detail of sexual or violent content. How is this law any different from those other two obviously invasive laws? They are not any different. Censorship should be illegal because it is a persons constitutional right to say whatever they deem necessary, and even if a person is under the age of 18 years old they should be allowed to listen to whatever they like. The responsibility is to the parents’ of these teenagers that wish to purchase this type of music: this burden has no direct link to the government. The government cannot possibly know what people this music would offend; therefore they should not be allowed to make this national judgment.
The Constitution clearly states that a person has a right to speak their mind freely, but by having censorship laws in affect, this undermines the Constitution and everything that it stands for. Censorship laws are like covering a person’s mouth when they want to speak. This law is telling the nation that, yes, you can speak freely, but we (the government) might not let anyone hear you. The artists’ that create these CD’s are not trying to hurt, manipulate, or brain-wash anyone: they are simply trying to express themselves the best way they can. It is up to each individual if they want to listen. It is not up to the government to make such a decision for the entire nation, and then have the nerve to call it a law! Are there not more important issues for the government to dwell over?
Each parent is singly responsible for their children, the government is not. Having these censorship laws in place is undermining a parents’ authority. No one from the United States Congress lives in these homes, and can therefore, not make a decision such as this one, for each and every parent of an adolescent. We have to assume that most parents play an active role in their child’s life, and that they will attempt to maintain a healthy environment for these children. The governments’ responsibility is to watch over the nation, as a whole, and make decisions about life-threatening issues that would better our country. It is not their responsibility to raise all the children in America because, quite simply, everyone has a different parenting style. The people that have the time to sit and create such ridiculous laws must not have any children of their own!
By definition, the word censor means, “An official with the power to examine literature, mail, etc. and remove or prohibit anything considered obscene or objectionable”. Who exactly is the official who has the power to do this? Does it seem fair that one individual can make a decision that truly lies in the personal preference of each and every person? What one person thinks is obscene or objectionable; another might believe is perfectly normal. The only people that give this topic so much attention are people who feel insecure with how much power they hold, and so they feel they are at least superior to adolescents. They think it is perfectly normal to waste time, and tax payer money discussing an issue as irrelevant as personal music choices?
We let adolescents drive at the age of 16. The government actually trusts these children to drive killing machines on the same roads on which they drive, but they may not purchase an Eminem CD without their mommy or daddy. Does that not seem just a little silly? Just as each driver has their own way of doing things, as right or wrong as it may be, each individual has the choice of what they would prefer to listen to. Parents, teachers, or even Congressmen should not be allowed to make this decision for them because it violates their Constitutional right. This law seems to be the first of many ridiculous laws that the government will attempt to put into affect to make this country more like a dictatorship everyday.