---

 

This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN#/ISBN# issue/book “Shining” cc&d, v284 (the June 2018 25-year anniversary issue) Order this as a 6"x9" paperback book:

Order this writing in the issue book Across the Wall the cc&d May-Aug. 2018 issues & chapbooks collection book		get the 372 page May-Aug. 2018 cc&d magazine issue collection 6" x 9" ISBN#035; paperback book:

Free Speech Canto XXIII

Michael Ceraolo

May 28, 1954
A subpoena is issued
by the House Un-American Activities Committee
to Lloyd Barenblatt, thirty-one,
a psychology instructor at Vassar,
the subpoena a piece of business
illustrating the dictum best expressed
twenty years later by Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles
(“We’ve got to protect our phony-baloney jobs”)

By the time Barenblatt appeared
before the un-American committee
on June 28, 1954,
he was no longer an instructor at Vassar,
his contract having expired in the interim

Barenblatt was asked five questions
about his time,
from 1947-1950,
as a graduate assistant and teaching fellow
at the University of Michigan

Barenblatt refused to answer the questions,
not because of the Fifth Amendment protection
against self-incrimination,
but
rather as an assertion
of his First Amendment rights
of freedom of speech and association
He was found in contempt of Congress

The statist majority on the Court
upheld Barenblatt’s citation,
concluding
“the balance between the individual
and the governmental interests . . .
must be struck in favor of the latter”

But
what was the government’s interest here?

One likely possibility:
that
“no purpose for the investigation of Barenblatt
is revealed by the record except exposure
purely for the sake of exposure”
that
“the chief aim, purpose, and practice . . .
is to try witnesses and punish them . . .
by humiliation and public shame”

And
showing subservience to the legislative branch
by allowing judicial functions to be usurped,
the Court majority
“completely leaves out
the real interest in Barenblatt’s silence,
the interests of the people as a whole
in being able to join organizations,
advocate causes and make political “mistakes”
without later being subjected
to governmental penalties
for having dared to think for themselves
It is this right,
the right to err politically,
which keeps us strong as a Nation”

And
the question,
then as now,
was
“whether we as a people
will try fearfully and futilely
to preserve democracy
by adopting totalitarian methods”
and
then it was sadly answered in the affirmative

Copyright of written pieces remain with the author, who has allowed it to be shown through Scars Publications and Design.Web site © Scars Publications and Design. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.

Problems with this page? Then deal with it...