This is a W2P Special Report:  Free Speech is to be viable at all times, even when the twisted words of hatred (and politics) that are being stated are not pleasant to behold.  But that is not to say that we have to continue to tune in and listen to the Talking Rhetoric-Spewing Heads that infuse their viewers/listeners with spouts of extremist right wing anti-government madness.

But wait, that sounds awfully one-sided.  The reason for this folks is because we're talking about a one-sided argument.  The most extremist left wing liberal does not go on to belch displays of fear/hate/war mongering shock jocking as does the Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Bill O'Reilly types.  These loud-mouths spout insane ramblings, which are at times intertwined with confusing twists on half-truths, in order to shock and stir up more and more anger in their listeners to the point of overriding the rational portions of their (potentially already irrational) viewers/listeners' brains.  Look up shock jocking and the psychology behind it.  These madmen and madwomen are focusing hatred to make money off of their public and to warp these people to their narrow minded political views/agendas; the kicker here is that they constantly complain/attack the US system that allows for politics to play out politically and not violently, because they say it does not work (it worked for 8 years when Bush and the boys ran things). 

The shock jocks do not incite violence, in most cases, directly.  However, they work hard to undermine everything that is not 100% in agreement with their extremist views, and they leave the infuriated listeners to put together their own plans of violence to help a "broken" political system that cannot be fought against peacefully. 

After the shooting of Giffords in Arizona, I have felt the need to speak out.  It was not the words of the extremists, such as Beck, that caused a madman to shoot and kill innocent people at a political meeting; it was the work of a nut, plain and simple.  But that nut clearly lived in an insane world where many other nuts are spouting such rhetoric of hate/violence that it is no wonder that the man used violence.  There could have been a disgruntled nut job who sat in on the meeting naked, or went there with thousands of "No Health Care Plan" balloons to peacefully make a stink at a friendly meeting held by Giffords. 

But we live in a world, according to the extremist Beck-types, where "nothing is fixable" when the right wing people are out of office; when there is no solution and you've convinced members of the public of this, what more can they do?  Will they act out violently in frustration?  Has their been any disgruntled nut jobs that have turned to violence lately?

Peaceful protests did not happen.  We live in a televised world where the extremist nuts are the ones with millions of fans and followers, like Beck and Palin.  They have the right to free speech, just as I do.  So I suggest that we collectively shun the Evil Rhetoric and the Ones who speak/write such extremist hate-stirring words.

By R.J. Huneke

With the new editions of one of America's greatest writer's two most famous works, censorship infringes upon the freedom of speech rights that Mark Twain fought so vehemently for in his lifetime. 

Apparently, with the Amendments to the Constitution, Americans have the freedom of speech until we die, at which time someone else can deem something you've written to be inappropriate, and since you cannot defend yourself, that someone can then censor the text. 

This is the alarming reality that is thrust upon the new year in the US.  NPR has just today released an Associated Press article (NPR.org) on the calamity that NewSouth Books, and Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben, are bringing about in Alabama.  It seems that no one in America is mature enough to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that Mark Twain originally wrote.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the fourth most banned book in the US, despite the fact many of the terms that cause it to be deemed inappropriate, were in fact used in a politically correct sense for the time, and it was published in 1885.  In the spirit of Mark Twain I say FUCK political correctness altogether.  The reality is this:  the story has Huck Finn, a young boy, as its protagonist in a world where "nigger" would have been said more than the 219 times that it appears throughout the work.  Twain depicts a real world that his young male adventures in, and he does not sugarcoat one of America's greatest works of fiction.

The reality that characters of slaves, such as the escaped "Jim", or characters of Native Americans, such as "Injun Joe" should be censored to children of any age over six is absurd.  Why can a historical book of fiction, that correctly depicts a world that the protagonist lived in over a hundred and twenty plus years ago, not be realized as a historically accurate account of fiction by students in middle schools and high schools?  Are Americans too stupid to be explained that the term "nigger" that is used by Mark Twain was by no means meant to be derogatory in any way?  Did not Mark Twain seek to bring about sympathy for our African American brothers and sisters (and far ahead of his time I might add)?  Would our young students still be offended if the historical works were explained to them from the onset?

Alan Gribben is working with NewSouth Books to release editions of Mark Twain's writing that will exclude the "N-word" and also change something as innocent as "Injun Joe" to "Indian Joe" and make "half-breed" into "half-blood".  Why?  "Injun" is clearly written this way to invoke an accent and not insult anyone.  What is next?  Are we to take every instance of violence that is seen through the eyes of a child, such as Huck Finn, and then censor that?  Clearly our parenting and teaching do not factor into out kids' moral behavior as much as 19th century adventure stories written by perhaps the greatest American author and artist of all time.

I thank God that I grew up in New York at a time where I was allowed to read Mark Twain's masterpieces.  And I read them uncensored.  I hope that people will wake up, remember the First Amendment and speak out, so that my future children can also read significant pieces of literature uncensored. 

Please continue to email Gribben about this atrocity and continue to spread the word that censorship is mortally harmful to art and literature in particular.  He says that people email and complain, but skirt the issue because they do not use the "N-word"; well I say that if "nigger" is not meant in a derogatory matter then by all means include "nigger" in the emails to this farce of a Twain scholar.

The solution is not to censor the books so that schools do not ban them, it is to get the schools to open their minds and teach the uncensored American classics.  Should others govern the way we live our lives?  I have a feeling Mark Twain would have said, "Fuck no!" to that.

By R.J. Huneke