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Who Thought This One Up?
By Dan Greenman

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

Surfing the Internet, I came across this story today, which aired on WHIO TV in Ohio:
(http://www.activedayton.com/partners/whiotv/news/1209_tshirt.html)

"Anti-Bush T-Shirt"
WHIO-TV, NEWSCENTER 7

Secret Service Agents question a Bellbrook High School student for wearing a controversial t-shirt.

The shirt has a picture of President Bush on it and the words, "not my president."
Because this issue is so sensitive, even we don't know the students name.

But we can tell you this whole thing was brought to the attention of school administrators after two students came forward and complained.

According to the Assistant Principal, the student had worn it before and the shirt didn't cause any problems until cross hairs appeared on the President's forehead.

The Assistant Principal confiscated the shirt, called the FBI and agents then called the secret service.

From that point, the Secret Service took over the investigation and met with the student and essentially treated the situation as a potential threat on the president.

There are more than 800 students at Bellbrook High School and the Assistant Principal says they're all good kids, but he's especially proud of two of them.

They tell us we're all responsible for homeland security, and they did what they're supposed to do and we're very proud of them for taking the stance that they did.


Give me a break! These T-shirts are sold for $13 online by Fat Wreck Chords, one of the world's most popular independent punk record labels. Thousands of kids own this shirt. I have a picture of myself with Matt Skiba, singer of Alkaline Trio, who is wearing the shirt.

Wearing a shirt that says you don't like the president and don't feel he won the election fairly has nothing to do with threatening his life. The First Amendment grants freedom of speech and press.

The same thing has happened to fans of the punk band Anti Flag, who have worn the band's logo, an upside-down American flag, on their clothes. A-F Records, the band's record label has a Web page (http://www.a-frecords.com/news/ACLU/ACLU.htm) that tells stories of kids being harassed and punished in school for displaying this political messages.

Is this the kind of country we want to live in? What kind of free, democratic, "united" nation alienates its own citizens who do not agree with the policies of its leaders?

Email Dan dgreenm1@ithaca.edu