I am a true scumbag.
First, I'm a criminal defense attorney, which means I pray daily for the demise of various, duly constituted governments throughout the great State of Florida. Second, I actually believe in the Bill of Rights, which means I'm probably a naive scumbag.
Nevertheless, because I believe in free speech, that means I also believe in freedom FROM speech.
My grandson is in middle school, an easily oppressed age. He's not old enough for his protests to be taken seriously, but he's too old to take the government seriously. It's a tough age.
School started recently, and he's required to attend, which is probably good. But because he's required to be there, his teachers and their bosses believe he's should also be required to be strictly attentive to their efforts to indoctrinate him; which is not good.
A few days ago, POTUS-O gave his now-annual back-to-school speech which was beamed into the classroom where young grandson was expected (read: required) to give his full attention. Bless his rebellious, little heart, however, he didn't. What he did was turn around in his chair and put his feet up on the desk of the kid behind him, at which point he proceeded to ignore the entire "teachable moment."
Coincidentally, the school had invited a local reporter to wander around the classes getting feedback from the kiddies, e.g., how much they love POTUS-O, blah, blah, blah. Fortunately (or unfortunately...depending), about the time young grandson turned around in his chair, the reporter walked into his classroom and snapped a picture of his totally peaceful protest. Oops.
His teacher and her bosses were horrified, mortified and transmogrified. Probably in that order. They went from easy-going authoritarian figures to screeching harpies in a span of approximately 8 seconds.
Young grandson was rushed from the classroom to the principal's office. He was duly screeched at for several minutes and hysterical calls were made to both his parents. "He embarrassed the entire school," they cried. "He'll have to be severely disciplined," they warned in voices normally reserved for prison wardens.
At his age, of course, he has no rights.
Or so they thought.
His father -- my beloved son -- stopped them in their tracks. "He will not be punished," he warned, "and if he is, I will make it my personal goal in life to sue you in every possible venue. And, if you doubt that, my father is a lawyer and he will do it for free." God Bless him. (I'll save the lecture about how lawyers never work for free for a later time.)
