Political rant:
An article from Textism that came through my news aggregator today points to an analysis by Blog Critics, which lead to this opinion from Nashville Scene. It all boils down to a music/media producer, Tamara Saviano, who was fired for a private email exchange with Charlie Daniels.
I understand how she feels wronged - she does indeed have a right to an opinion and to express it. But there is no right to a job. Remember civics class? The free speech amendment only covers actions by the government. Private employers can fire you for any reason they want (except your color, gender and disability status. Those exceptions have been expressly protected from employment decisions by laws and found not to violate the Constitution in court.)
Look at it from this point of view: You own a music company - you know, trying to get filthy rich and all - and an employee (whose political views are almost certainly opposed to your's) gets into an argument with a client that you're hot for. Shouldn't you be able to fire that employee? It wouldn't be good old America if you couldn't.
So I doubt that Tamara Saviano has much of a case.
Which is too bad, because if this kind of thing happens too often, it will harm our society for decades to come. The political climate in the early fifties was filled with the 'for us or against us' idea from McCarthyism. This in turn bred distrust between the government and the governed, which were supposed to be one and the same.
Now that mood is descending on us again, and as before, the Us v Them mentality is driven by fear of real enemies. Then of communists, now of terrorists. We are just begining to fall into social hysteria and may yet be able to pull ourselves out of it. I hope so.
