Free speech in the US?…yeah…right!

It’s a good thing we don’t live in a country where we can get into trouble for what we say. We have freedom of speech—or do we? Just this week Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen was suspended 5 games for saying he “loved and admired” Fidel Castro. We constantly hear that Castro doesn’t allow civil liberties, but apparently we don’t have the right to praise him here in the US. We can lose our jobs for doing so.
From Think Mexican;
Earlier today, Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen was suspended 5 games for saying he “loved and admired” Fidel Castro. Apparently, this deeply offended the exiled Cuban community of Miami.
From The Christian Science Monitor;
But here’s the thing: Guillen got something right about Castro. And that something is the very reason he’s in trouble.
It’s correct that Castro, against long odds, has defied US efforts to oust or kill him for decades. There was the hapless US-sponsored invasion (Bay of Pigs), the crackpot schemes (exploding sea shells intended for his diving spots), and straightforward economic pressure (economic embargoes).
Nothing worked. And that has driven a succession of US presidents to distraction, while only increasing the animosity of an expatriate community that has waited so long to celebrate his demise.
This same week a teacher, Brooke Harris, was fired for helping students organize a fundraiser for the family of Trayvon Martin, the boy who was murdered by a neighbourhood watch captain George Zimmerman. According to WMCTV 5;
PONTIAC, MI (NBC/WDIV) - Former literature teacher Brooke Harris claims she was fired from Michigan's Pontiac Academy for Excellence for helping students organize a fundraiser for the family of Trayvon Martin.
The teenage Martin was fatally shot in a Florida neighborhood earlier this year by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman.
"I feel bad for my kids," Harris said. "I feel bad that now not just society is underestimating them, but so is the woman who is supposed to be looking out for their education."
In the US, no one puts us in jail for our view points (in theory at least). They just fire us from our jobs if we say something unpopular. This is why I have to use this pen name: សតិវ អតុ.

Pix.