We plan poetry events nationally and welcome suggestions and input.
Bill Nevins
Albuquerque

I am the teacher Bill Nevins.
There are serious inaccuracies and fudged statements in the RRPS letter.
But regardless, the facts are clear.
The lawsuit is in Federal court in NM.
It has NOT been dismissed in whole or in part.
The issues are free speech, academic freedom and the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. This struggle is engaged in defense of those rights.

As an unemployed teacher, I am grateful for all support in this struggle.
A benefit concert in support of this Free Speech struggle will take place July 3 (Saturday), 2004, 6-10 pm at the
Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. Some of our nation’s finest writers will perform their works in celebration of Independence and Free Speech. Please join us there!

Anyone who wants updated information, please feel free to contact me at bill_nevins@yahoo.com

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Gracias.

It still seems that the reasons for his dismissal are unfair, and how frightening it is the we have a permenant military presence on high schools (as opposed to them coming on career day, when I was still in school.) The whole thing seem to have started because of such a military presence didn’t like an artits’s comments about the war. Maybe he or she should be the first to apologize for taking such a harsh stance towards a minor, and two violated an inidividual’s free speech on a social level.

Many people have stated that there is a liberal media…given CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, I’d like to know where the hell it now resides. After reading the article and this board, I felt that the Op Ed was a reactionary piece that should have gotten all side, like a proper journalist. But given the war, Patriot Act and the violations of our free speech on a social level…it’s practiced every day, on the internet, even as on this message board. The fact is, while we are affored this right, so say what we want, when we want, the majority of Americans don’t have the intelligence and fortitude to process this right. When one doens’t agree with another, they want to put a label on them, be it “liberal” or “right-wing”. The perfect name for American society would be “category whores.”

We’re a reactionary country, we’ve been tought to be reactionary. The guy who talked about his teacher who taught “Americanism” 4 days a week is proof of that. Well, I guess preaching racism, closed mindedness and religious intolerance is the most American lessons one could ever have.

All in all kudos to the high school girl for her courage, even though I haven’t read the poem. I’ve written a few anti-war poems mayself. Feel free to give into your animal instincts of reactionary thought on that comment.