Monday, April 24, 2006

I got my new T-shirt printing kit just in time for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling...

A recent post on one of my favorite Miami blogs brought up the whole "Che" image imbroglio. I was fortunate enough to have met Mr. Korda in La Habana before he passed away--he claimed he never made a penny off that iconic image, by the way.

What really concerns me, is how people of all ages wear that image of Che with little knowledge of what the man was. Maybe they've read the Motorcycle Diaries, or seen the movie. But they don't know that he was also a cold-blooded murderer. One wonders which images of the 20th century will represent us in a few hundred year's time, and what it will say about us.

According to Henry Weinstein's piece in the Times, the Supreme Court has held that Americans must tolerate offensive speech. Some limitations were permissible, however.

And yet, school districts in Vermont and Florida have curtailed programs aimed at curbing bullying because of parental complaints that the programs were somehow promoting homosexuality. I wonder if the same parents would be objecting if the programs had been sponsored by the NAACP or other national human rights organizations.

So it's okay to beat up and harass people you don't like--just don't put it on your T-shirt.

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