Free speech is all very well and good, but it is absolutely no excuse for what Moore did. It was disrespectful to the Academy, who asked that the topic of the war not be brought up, and it was disrespectful to the audience, who more than likely did not come to hear about one man’s views on a disturbing topic.

I don’t believe that anyone is “writing off” their freedom of speech because the people in question are celebrities.

The fact is, in this wonderfully free country of ours, everyone has an opinion.

That opinion may be considered wrong by a large number of people, but Joe Everyman doesn’t have the ear of the nation, so to speak.

Millions of people won’t boo some schmuck when he says something that he believes in, but when celebrities express their opinions, they can’t “help” but reach many, many people, a good number of which probably disagree with whatever opinion is being put forth.

Expressing controversial opinions is fine, but people like Moore and Maines need to be aware of their visibility before spouting off something that seems (might not really be, but seems) crafted to inflame people.

Michael Moore especially craves this sort of attention, but who considers this man a freedom fighter because he blatantly did what he was asked not to do? There was no regime to defy, just people who wanted a night free of [political] controversy.

When all someone is doing is being loud for the sake of being loud, does anyone really want to hear it?

Chris Sammis

Junior

Computer Science