Thursday, September 29, 2005

Freestyling Banned

I spoke this morning for a promotional video for Close Up. There were about 30 or so high school students and the format was similar to the Domestic Issues debate I normally do, minus the liberal counterpart. They asked questions and I gave the conservative position on the issue. As always they asked great questions and had me on my toes the whole time.

One of the students, asking about free speech, shared this ridiculous story. Apparently two students at her school were freestyling (for those of you who don't spend much time with high school students, that is when two people take turns raping off the top of their head back and forth to see who is better...watch 8 Mile and you will see exactly what it is).

Well one of the freestyling sessions went to far and the two guys ended up getting in a fight. So what does the school officials do in response. Well if you guessed the school made an example of the two guys by giving them the full punishment for fighting and making it clear that anyone who fights regardless of what starts it will get the same punishment, you would be wrong. No, what the all-knowing officials did was ban freestyling on campus.

This is another great example of government officials missing a chance to teach personal responsibility. This is the exact same error as trying to ban all guns because someone used a gun to kill someone. The gun didn't kill a person, another person did. In the same vein, freestyling was not the cause of the fight, two students were.

I can't think of a more creative exercise than trying to rap off the cuff. I would think this is an activity schools would promote and encourage. However leave it to these idiots to stifle creativity and reinforce that you aren't responsible for you own actions.

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