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<BR><BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">What (& how much) are you willing to sacrifice in order to defend the
<BR>right to free speech of those who hold unpopular opinions?
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<BR>Yoshie
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<BR>I am not sure I know how to answer this question. I find the "I disagree with
<BR>what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to do so" line little
<BR>more than melodramatic posturing. Nothing more than our political time and
<BR>effort, as well as our financial support, are required of us in the US to
<BR>defend freedom of expression. I do consider questions of freedom of
<BR>expression to be high priority political issues for me, right up with the
<BR>right to vote and freedom of association. Not all attacks on these rights
<BR>pose threats to democratic rule that are of equal gravity, so I get a lot
<BR>more exercised about the disenfranchisement of African-Americans in Florida
<BR>than I do about Guiliani's posturing about art in public museums, but the
<BR>greater the gravity, the more of my time and energy I would commit to the
<BR>issue.
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<BR>Leo Casey
<BR>United Federation of Teachers
<BR>260 Park Avenue South
<BR>New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
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<BR>Power concedes nothing without a demand.
<BR>It never has, and it never will.
<BR>If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
<BR>Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who
<BR>want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and
<BR>lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
<BR><P ALIGN=CENTER>-- Frederick Douglass --
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