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Editorials

  • GUEST OPINION: Football/prayer: It’s all about an even playing field

    By KEN PAULSON
    First Amendment Center
    You can throw a Hail Mary at a public school football game, but you can’t actually hail Mary.

    That distinction is at the heart of a flurry of incidents this fall in which public universities and high schools are being challenged for conducting prayers before football games.

    In recent months:
    The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga announced that it would no longer hold public prayers before football games, while the UT campus in Knoxville said it was retaining them at Neyland Stadium.

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  • GUEST OPINION: Knowledge is power against hate, distrust

    By CHARLES C. HAYNES
    First Amendment Center
    Over the past decade, an anti-Muslim movement in America has pushed for anti-Shariah laws in some 23 states and helped generate anti-mosque protests in more than 50 communities.

    Even more disturbing, poisonous anti-Muslim rhetoric has contributed to an atmosphere of anger and hate that provokes acts of intimidation and violence — including the recent attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin where six people were murdered, apparently because the killer confused Sikhs with Muslims.

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  • GUEST OPINION: Cities may not screen transit ads by viewpoint

    By KEN PAULSON
    First Amendment Center
    A second federal judge has ruled that a metropolitan transit system must accept controversial ads that call for support for Israel and the defeat of “jihad.”

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  • GUEST OPINION: Penned-up press not an effective public watchdog

    By GENE POLICINSKI
    First Amendment Center
    Watchdogs are not effective when they are penned up or kept out of the yard entirely.

    The First Amendment protects the rights of a free press for everyone, not just those with printing presses, broadcast stations or Internet news operations.

    But having the right of a free press for all also conveys a special responsibility to the few who do work for such organizations.

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  • Man’s complaints about co-worker not protected

    By DAVID L. HUDSON Jr.
    First Amendment Center
    A former garbage-truck driver for the city of Franklin, Tenn., had no First Amendment right to report the allegedly violent conduct of his co-worker, a federal judge has ruled.
    Ruben B. Pruitt Jr. worked as a driver/operator for Franklin’s Solid Waste Department.
    In June 2010, while working with his partner, who is identified in court documents only as Mr. Allocco, Pruitt contended that Allocco flew into a violent rage and began beating the side of the truck.

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  • Ignorance over religion comes with hefty price

    By CHARLES HAYNES
    First Amendment Center
    In Judge Joseph Sheeran’s courtroom, religious literacy is seen as an antidote to intolerance and hate.
    Last week, the Michigan judge gave Delane Bell two years’ probation for attacking two men Bell thought were Muslims. But the judge conditioned the sentence on Bell’s completing a 10-page paper on Hinduism, the actual faith of the assault victims.

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  • GUEST OPINION: Color ban yet another lesson on freedom

    By DAVID L. HUDSON Jr.
    First Amendment Center
    East St. Louis, Ill., has a gang problem.

    It may now have a constitutional problem as well.

    Last week, Mayor Alvin Parks imposed a host of restrictions designed to curtail youth violence in his city. Among the most controversial — and likely unconstitutional — of the new rules is a ban on the wearing of royal blue or bright red clothing by men — regardless of their age. The colors are associated with gangs.

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  • GUEST OPINION: To criminalize blasphemy not the right choice

    By KEN PAULSON
    First Amendment Center
    Criminalizing blasphemy is critical to protecting global peace, the head of the Arab league told the U.N. Security Council yesterday.

    “If the international community has criminalized bodily harm, it must just as well criminalize psychological and spiritual harm,” Nabil Elaraby said. “The League of Arab States calls for the development of an international framework which is binding … in order to confront insulting religions and ensuring that religious faith and its symbols are respected.”

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  • OUR OPINION: Transparency a requirement for democracy

    This week the Texas Supreme Court upheld the state’s Open Meetings Law, ruling against a group of city council members who argued that limiting their discussion of public business to open meetings violated their own rights to free speech.

    It was an important ruling, because, unlike Tennessee, Texas law holds criminal penalties for those who violate Open Meetings Law.

    “Transparency is furthered by allowing the public to have access to government decision making,” the court said. In other words, in a democracy, voters need to be in on the discussion and debate

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  • Sounding the alarm for needed teacher supplies

    Anyone with teachers as family members, friends or neighbors knows they are always reaching into their own pockets for money for supplies.
    Sometimes that money is for instructional supplies for lab activities or for their own needs. Often, however, it is for supplies for students who may not be able to afford the very basics they need for successful learning.

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Copyright © 2013

The Roane County News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Roane County and Kingston, Tennessee, and the surrounding area.