The Errors of Helen Thomas

Perhaps it was an error; perhaps she simply assumed that the unspoken cultural rule of courtesy permitting the elderly greater leeway when it comes to expressing their opinions would apply to her--she is, after all, 89 years old.

But whatever prompted Helen Thomas to freely express her opinion on the Israel/ Palestine conflict, she learned right quick that the document of the Constitution itself (as amended) and the Supreme Court decisions protecting political speech have little purchase in this country where the state of Israel is concerned.

Oh, sure, she didn't break any laws when she said what she did. No agent of the government will come knocking on her door with a warrant for her arrest. So, in that sense, Helen Thomas's right to express her political opinion has been safeguarded by the U.S. Constitution. Perhaps we should all take a moment to pat ourselves on the back.

But since when is legality the applicable yardstick in American politics? The Bush regime showed little regard for the Constitution, the U.N. Charter, the Geneva Conventions. It's like Richard Nixon told David Frost: when the President does it, it's not illegal--some of us are actually old enough to remember a time when Nixon's view offended a majority of Americans. Evidently, that time has past.

So patting ourselves on the back (or stroking some less mentionable part of our anatomies) because we live in a great country where the Helen Thomases of the world can freely express their political opinions without legal repercussions is to be willfully blind to the real consequences in this country of expressing political opinions that the ruling elite find repugnant. For her "crime-think," Helen Thomas has been retired in disgrace.

And so it goes in these Orwellian States of Amnesia.