OCTOBER 3rd - Say Whatcha Wanna



On this day in 1990, Charles Freeman, a record store owner in Ft. Lauderdale, was convicted of obscenity for selling 2 Live Crew’s Nasty as They Wanna Be and fined $1000. Freeman spoke out in defense of the First Amendment and appealed the ruling. I’d have to agree with his stance. If an adult wants to buy some hypersexualized rap album, well that’s his/her prerogative, just like it’s the right of the prophets on Bourbon Street to tell all the sinners to repent or burn in hell. It doesn’t make what is being said right, but the person does have a right to say it. Thomas Jefferson might have actually been impressed with Freeman. Probably not though. TJ would have supported his right to sell the music, but I doubt he would have been impressed with Freeman’s fight. “Seriously, Charles. The tyranny I fought against was a little greater than the prudes you are fighting,” he would have said. And he probably wouldn’t have been impressed with 2 Live Crew either. “While I support you freedom to say whatever you wish, in my day, we didn’t announce when we were feeling randy,” he also would have said. Of course TJ once saw John Adams pants James Madison during a debate at the 2nd Continental Congress, and didn’t even laugh. “Would have been funnier, if you had also given him a wet willy,” was all Jefferson could muster in response. Truthfully, TJ may have been a little proud of Freeman, except for the fact that Freeman subsequently started selling cocaine, got busted and was sentenced to 18 years. But minus the whole drug-selling twist, TJ would have been happy to see an American standing up for what he believed in. Even if what he believed in was a right to sell an album with a song called “The F*&$ Shop.” One of the great things about 1st Amendment is that it allows for so many varying opinions. Some things people say are utterly preposterous and some things can be hurtful or racial or stupid. But this gives a person the opportunity to be discerning, to take in multiple viewpoints and come to his/her own opinion. And while I doubt that cocaine-selling Charles Freeman thought about all this when he claimed the fine was bullshit, it’s something to think about. Or not. Either way, the 1st Amendment allows me to tell you it is.

This day has been Marked.

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