What? I was Only Joking When I Said "DIE!"

Freedom of speech “is the freedom to speak without censorship and/or limitation.” (Wikipedia.org). It is each persons duty to exercise our protected rights with adequate especially when it can invoke violent actions. How do we draw the line from freedom of speech and “criminal speech”? Some things are obvious, such as falsely yelling “BOMB” on a plane or “FIRE” around a crowd of people intending to cause panic and disorder. In “The Violent Consequences of Conservative Speech" by Michael J.W. Stickings he speaks about (as stated in the title) the violent consequences of speech which focuses on the political issues such as the health-care reform and the threats to Congressmen to not vote yes. Stickings is calling attention to conservatives and says, “But what do you think is going to happen when you call the president illegitimate, a foreigner who essentially stole the election? Or when you stoke fears of a socialist-fascist takeover of government and of government assault on freedom? Do you not think that some out there will convert your speech to action -- hording guns, building bunkers, and otherwise preparing for violence? And do you not think that some will actually take to the streets to wage whatever war they think you're calling on them to wage?” Its true that they need to be more aware of how their words are interpreted. Then there are those that should not say anything at all; “Pinson, Alabama-based blogger Mike Vanderboegh has been tracking the breaking of windows at Dem offices after issuing a call Friday: 'To all modern Sons of Liberty: THIS is your time. Break their windows. Break them NOW.'” It's absolutely (for lack of a better word) inappropriate to solicit violent actions towards a person(s). He is right to call it terrorism.

That Thursday February 18th morning I walked out of my home and noticed what I initially thought was fog, how odd. As I locked my front door I took a whiff of air...smoke. Something was burning and it's way too early for a b-b-q. I got in my car and down the street I saw the house the smoke was emanating from and the road to my left blocked. That's great, I don't need to go that direction. I turned right and in the distant horizon was clouds of black smoke. Curious.

Excluding the times its been accidentally been hit to get to FM, the AM button has never been touched in my car prior to that Thursday morning. Not knowing any stations, I remember listening to the first coherent station the scanner stopped on. The police of chief was addressing the press and stated that a man flew an airplane into an office building, it was not likely a terrorist attack. The day went on and “not likely” turned to “not”. Truth be told, it shames me to say that when I hear “terrorist” I think of a foreigner (because what American citizen could hate the best country in the world), a Muslim, someone along the lines of Osama bin Laden. I think it's the fact that the first time I remember such a huge event involving terrorism was September 11. Being so young at the time, age 15, it was set as a basis on what I associated terrorism to be.

In Robert Wright's article in The New York Times, he says “In common usage, a 'terrorist' is someone who attacks in the name of a political cause and aims to spread terror — to foster fear that such attacks will be repeated until grievances are addressed.” Under that criteria Joseph Stack was a terrorist. One of the reasons why they did not consider him a terrorist was that it would cause fear and panic to the American public. But it's worse to reinforce the misleading image the word terrorist leads to.

The other part of this article labels Stack as a Tea-Partier. I don't agree with categorizing anyone with any label unless the person outright says that are so. His manifesto isn't evidence he was a left or right, up or down. Joseph was an angry man and wanted to be heard. Simple as that.

"Insured, but Bankrupted Anyway" by Annie Underwood, The New York Times
One goal of the heath care reform is that health care will be available to everyone. Many cannot afford health care but with the reform health insurance will be cheaper. However, simply having health insurance isn't enough. It's predicted that millions of people will file for medical bankruptcy in the next year. In recent studies, two thirds of people who have filed for bankruptcy cite that it was medical related. Of those, over half had insurance. There are many repercussions that filing bankruptcy does, bad credit, difficulty getting loans for things such as housing and many more.
I am unsure about how I feel about the health care reform plan, whether it will do good or not, but I believe there are other issues we need to give attention to. The health reform may sound pleasing, "health insurance for everyone", but there is a bigger picture that needs to be focused on such as unemployment and the economic recession.