Posted on 04/28/2003 12:35:07 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Rock For Life, America's premier pro-life youth organization, is proud to announce that today, Monday, April 28, 2003 will be its first-ever National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day, when all pro-life students are encouraged to exercise their First Amendment right of free speech by wearing a pro-life T-shirt to school. "The idea to hold a National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day was inspired by the continued discrimination against pro-life students around the country," said Rock For Life's Sara McKalips. "These young men and women were not protesting, they were not being confrontational, they were simply wearing one of their favorite T-shirts to class and have been victims of unreasonable intolerance for that."
In a recent highly publicized case, the principal of Abington Junior High School in Abington, Pa., equated an honor roll student's wearing of a pro-life t-shirt to displaying the Nazi swastika. Principal Neal McCarthy banned the T-shirt, which read "Abortion is Homicide," temporarily from the school. The Thomas More Center for Law & Justice-which has offered to represent any student discriminated against during RFL's T-shirt Day-quickly took action on the student's behalf, demanding the school reverse the ban. After the threat of legal action, McCarthy reversed the ban and apologized to the student. In other cases, students have been suspended, given detention and physically assaulted for simply wearing a pro-life T-shirt in public.
As a sign of strength and unity, thousands of students will wear their shirts to show that the bigoted behavior of a few students and faculty will not dissuade them from affirming the most basic human right, the right to life. Since January 1, 2003, American Life League's resource department has distributed almost 5,000 pro-life T-shirts and sweatshirts to families, groups and schools who want to participate in this landmark event. Additionally, many families and schools are holding "make-your-own-T-Shirt" events in tandem with National Pro-Life T-shirt Day.
National Pro-Life T-shirt Day has been endorsed by many national leaders including American Life League founder Judie Brown, Ambassador Alan Keyes, Gary Cherone, former lead singer of Extreme and Van Halen, as well as Jerry Falwell and the Rev. Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition.
Kicking off National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day [Monday, April 28]
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Wearing a t-shirt purchased at that mall does not belong in the same category as drunkenness, public disturbance, or vulgarity. I agree that the students banned for wearing anti-abortion shirts to school is ridiculous, but lets not be hypocritical here. Freedom of speech means tolerating messages you may disagree with.
No, it does not mean that at all. It means that government shall not make a law limiting the free exercise of speech. Read the First Amendment! Tolerance is not mentioned.
If you decide to spout off on my front lawn, and I tell you to leave, you better go, or you can be arrested and convicted of trespass....and free speech will not matter a whit. Malls are "private property" in most states. Failure to leave when asked is misdemeanor trespass. Your shirt won't save you from being ejected or arrested.
Legally, there's certainly nothing to argue. But if he bought the shirt from one of the mall shops and was doing nothing more inflammatory than wearing it while he strolled the mall, it's certainly hypocritical of management/security to ask that he leave. Either the mall's merchants association had better circumscribe the sale of such shirts or reconcile themselves to a well-earned PR black eye when they tell customers, "Thanks for spending your money here. Now hit the road, creep."
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