Here is a bit of history. President John F. Kennedy made this five minute speech to discuss how his administration would handle secrecy in the White House. It talks in detail about the value of freedom of speech and removing secrecy from our society. I thought that the video that runs with the audio of the speech is pretty interesting also. Discuss your thoughts on freedom of speech, and how the 24 hour news cycle aids or negative impacts the ideals of which JFK speaks.
This speech by JFK is heart felt, he has great passion in his voice as he discusses how negative inforced groups can deeply hurt people. Our countries main practiced law, The 5th amendmett Freedom of speech,which discribes and demonstrates what America stands for and what differentates us from other countries.During these years in the 50s and 60s many political and revolutionary issues were occurring and JFKs speech showed several images of war, racism and social epidmics that brought a negative effect on society. This inspirational speech was to let the people know that the government does not approve of negative secrete societies.
ReplyDeletei do agree with robyn , according to the 5th amendment Freedom of speech is a right of every american citizen and resident. i believe using words in the right context can help save lives and bring about changes in tough economic times. it is necessary that every person has a right to speak especially in a country whose motto is "In God we Trust" .
ReplyDeleteThe 5th amendment gives us all the freedom of speech, it does not however, say to which manner we are supposed to use that freedom. I think that Kennedy is speaking more to the fact that Americans should be united in their speech and that secret societies are hindering the continuation of our American culture. The 24 hour news cycle is furthering this idea by allowing constant access to daily news and happenings so that Americans can be equally informed and stand United together when times are hard. However, the wide spread nature of our 24 hour news cycle allows for other countries to exploit this unity because they have the same access to the news and happenings as we as Americans do. Kennedy is trying to unite us as a country devoid of internal cliques so that we as a united body can further the culture of the United States.
ReplyDeleteJust a clarification. The 1st amendment is the basis for our freedom of speech. This is a good example of the cascade effect, where groups perpetuate misinformation
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you clarified that because I was really second guessing my knowledge of the amendments as I was reading the first few comments... My favorite part of JFK's speech was how he encourages the press to take on the difficult and never ending task of reporting to the people so that citizens can make their own informed decisions about how the country is being run. That's a very powerful delegation and I think the media should go back to this speech when they are reporting the "truth". Even though the reporting is largely bias, I agree with Cortney that the constant access to news gives us all the opportunity to be informed on today's issues, regardless of whether or not we choose to take advantage of that ability. We can only blame ourselves if we don't use our knowledge to question the way the government is making decisions for all of us.
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