Free speech probed at IC presentation

Laughter pealed through Illinois Colleges Sibert Theatre as students listened to a recording of comedian George Carlin rattling off the seven dirty words you can never say on television.

The message was quite serious, though.

Carlin, who died in 2008, first spoke out about the filthy words in May 1972 during a seven-minute routine he delivered onstage in Santa Monica, Calif. Two months later he was arrested on obscenity charges after performing the same skit in Milwaukee.

A lawsuit resulting from a radio station airing a modified version of the Seven Dirty Words bit made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which by a majority decision ruled in 1978 that the act was indecent, but not obscene. However, because the broadcast occurred during the daytime when a child could accidentally be exposed to profanity the Court said the Federal Communications Commission could regulate offensive content on broadcasts between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

That legal battle and other landmark court cases were reviewed during the colleges 1st and Foremost, Lift Your Voices convocation to commemorate Free Speech Week.

During an hour-long presentation, Adrienne Hacker Daniels, IC professor of communication and rhetorical studies; former IC professor Adria Battaglia, now an Angelo State University faculty member; graduate students Stephen Henry and Maria Hagland, who traveled with Battaglia from San Angelo,Texas; and IC students, Travis James, Ross Barker, Phuong Nguyen, Melissa Mennenga, Katie Pierce and Josh Williams covered three types of speech obscene, hate and seditious.

The goal was to really give the audience a good sense of the true meaning and ramifications of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Hacker Daniels said. What I expect students to take away is an understanding of what their First Amendment rights are because I really dont think a lot of people truly know. I think what we did today gives people a good sense of the history of these issues as we progressed.

The presentation didnt shy away from using some of the profanity involved in the court cases, but Hacker Daniels said the language did make her feel uncomfortable about holding that type of convocation in the colleges chapel. Instead, it was held in the theater.

There are things that, according to the law and according to the (court) decisions, you can say legally, Hacker Daniels said. Then you have to ask yourself: Should I say something like that? Just because the law allows me to say something like that does it mean that its the right thing to do?

Williams wore a robe with a three-word profane phrase about military conscription that was at the core of a 1971 Supreme Court case dealing with freedom of speech. The court overturned the mans conviction for the crime of disturbing the peace for wearing a jacket that displayed the phrase.

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Free speech probed at IC presentation