“Our forefathers did not intend for the First Amendment to allow profanity and provocative behavior to be freely aired and displayed on TV and the airwaves during hours that it will be exposed to children.”

Clearly wins the title for vacuous truth of the day. Neither did our forefathers intend to allow Heidi to be freely aired and displayed on TV, nor anything else.

Frank Anshen, Assoc. Prof at State U of NY — Stony Brook, at 10:15 am EDT on May 9, 2006

Sandra is just wrong

Sandra, While our “forefathers” (of which most of us have no blood relationship to) probably couldn’t conceive of the television at all, it is worth nothing that profanity and vulgarity were actually used in discourse at the time! Don’t believe me? See Justice Rehnquist’s opinion in Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46, 54 (1988) (“Despite their sometimes caustic nature, from the early cartoon portraying George Washington as an ass down to the present day, graphic depictions and satirical cartoons have played a prominent role in public and political debate.”) The actual cartoon included the word “ass.” (In fact, if I recall correctly, the both major parties logos are based on somewhat derogatory depictions of their activities, that they did not choose for themselves.)

Larry, at 11:55 am EDT on May 9, 2006

Turn off the TV

My thanks to the other writers who pointed out in various ways that the Forefathers weren’t prigs (except for maybe John Adams), and they certainly weren’t thinking specifically about airways (except for maybe Ben Franklin.) Rather they crafted a document which would flex rather than tear.

Why people don’t just turn off the TV or radio is totally beyond me. Just the description of the film tells me that it is going to pass muster as having social, artistic or educational value. Therefore, the only thing going on is governmental censorship because of the ideas—and that is exactly what the Constitution was designed to prevent.

Christine Valada, at 12:45 pm EDT on May 9, 2006

Family values?

Sandra, the problem with your family values is that they are not my family values. I don’t pray to a cross and never have. Yet I pay the same amount of tax dollars as you do to have my children taught in a public school, where there is thankfully still separation of church and state, though you would choose to have it otherwise. If you want your teachers to put up a cross in the classroom, I respectfully suggest that you consider sending them to private school. You do not have a God-given right to your particular set of “family values” and yours are not inherently better or more valuable than mine.

If you do not like what is shown on the mass media, do what I do — don’t allow your children to watch. Problem solved.

Robyn, at 1:40 pm EDT on May 9, 2006

Sandra has a point...

The argument with Sandra seems to be “turn off the TV and don’t listen” as put forth by the subsequent mainline cultural bloggers that followed. The mainline bloggers suggest that Sandra and her kind should get out of the world and leave them alone. Both have a point, but let me suggest the baseline of the issue.

When one examines the basic reasons why once great nations such as the Roman Empire, The English Empire, and others fell to oblivion, one basic fact stands out: As they became more and more affluent and without want, the more perverse behavior and loss of personal values, self-discipline and responsibility, and the willingness to serve was ignored to the point that they were unable to re-create it when it was necessary to lead future generations and, thus, they fell.

Our forefathers in the US, despite many of them with personal indescretions, recognized as a result of the near disappearance of any solid value system in the Middle and Medieval periods with its perverse totalitarian rule over the illiterate population created a Declaration of Independence and Constitution that allows dissent (and rule) within reason.

The problem with the US at this juncture is that as universal literacy is made available (Without question, it should be) our nation is at the “stage of life” that is economically unequalled and as Jimmy Cagney and Leonardo DeCaprio would say: “I’m (We’re) on top of the world!". Our current power generation of the boomers (whose parents fought and died for those principles) and their undisciplined children of the 60’s, the gen-xers, have thrown the values their parents fought for to the winds and we are reaping the whirlwind harvest in the Howard Sterns of this society under the banner of “free speech", free sex, and undisciplined behavior.

We are at the stage — right now — to see if the Vision of our forefathers will (can) blossom. Will we be able to exercise the personal self-discipline, adopt a personal value system that is based on the appropriate religious faith, and assume the personal responsibility of building a nation that can meet the challenges of greatness OR fall as other nations have who have succumbed to the “lure of the siren” and thrown it all away to become subserviant to the dictators whom we worship and who can (and will) make decisions for us?

I am pessimistically (if that is a good word) optimistic that as the current generation of Millenials assume power in the next 10-30 years that as they search for structure in their lives and seek out the value systems that has grown this nation and as they observe the perverse behavior and lack of responsibility the post WWII generations (and I guess I include my own silent generation for not teaching as well as we could have), that they will grasp these issues and lead us to new unprecendented heights in human history. You will see as we fall down the slippery slope we are on or we soar to new heights. There is no other alternative.

Can we do it? Yes, I believe we can... Will we do it? Right now I don’t think so, but...?

Edward Winslow, A “tired” Retired Business Professor, at 5:15 pm EDT on May 9, 2006

eeek...bad language and boobies!!!

I was eating dinner with my host family in Europe one night when they decided to turn on the news. An interview at the beach revealed bare breasts; not sure about the language.

Somehow, entire countries have seen *verboten* material and survived quite well...also, they drink and swear quite casually?

May I add that maybe children are doing and hearing more than you think they are?

Piper, Ms. at Florida University, at 8:35 am EDT on May 10, 2006