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Essay about Let's Stand Up for Liberty

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Who is Robyn Blumner? Perhaps she is simply your everyday editorialist for a daily newspaper. Or, as the former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida (ACLU), could she possibly have her own agenda? One of Blumner's columns entitled "Let's stand up for liberty" was published in a well known editorial writers magazine called "The Masthead". In summary, it focuses on freedom of speech, and how we tend to lose sight of it, or even have it taken from us during national hardships. She feels that the government tends to deny us of these freedoms when we need them the most, during war. Blumner sturdily supports her claims throughout the course of her column. However, does the fact that she was once affiliated with the …show more content…

Blumner claims "during World War I, few editorial boards stood up for civil liberties. Instead, they chose to reflect the xenophobic [anti-immigrant] views of their readership" [par.16]. In support, she quotes from a professor of journalism, Joseph McKerns, to back her statement. McKerns asserts "foreigners were the ones portrayed as a threat rather than merely exercising free speech" [par.18]. He also alleges "the daily press made a convenient separation, seeing the speech of the political activist as different from what it did" [par.17]. By accentuating her interest of immigrant's rights, could it be she is supporting yet again, her past organization?
Where do her priorities lie? So far we have identified her support of national freedom and immigrant's rights. Throughout the course of the article she also defends the rights of Japanese Americans, German Americans, and defends publishers that were prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act in wartime history. She may have valid claims, but she is still being biased. What about the natives of Iraq that gained liberties from the capture of Saddam Hussein? War doesn't always have viewed negatively. Apparently she was respected enough to be published. However, a little background on "The Masthead" is nothing more than an opinion writing magazine. Does this make her credible? I think not!
In the beginning I was compelled by her article. It truly made me

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