Censorship! On the Campaign Trail?

Elections for officers for the Class of 2014 were held last week at Grosse Pointe South High School. While fourteen-year old Isaac Piecuch of Grosse Pointe Farms was elected in a landslide to be president of his school's freshman class, he encountered some bumps on his road to victory.

Unknown to the voters at South High School, Isaac is a second cousin of Juan Williams, the recently dropped political commentator for National Public Radio, and now the darling of Fox News.

As celebrities go, Williams is a one who until recently elicited blank stares from most people. Not too many of Isaac's classmates listened to NPR, let alone picked up Williams' biography of Thurgood Marshall or cared that he was on the editorial board of the Washington Post. But now, thanks to the attentions of Bill O'Reilly, Whoopie Goldberg, and Jon Stewart, Williams is practically a household name--and Isaac is his cousin.

The son of immigrants from Panama, Williams and Isaac's mother (my wife Clarisa) grew up together in Brooklyn, New York. Williams' parents figured out that education was the key to success and they somehow sent Juan to prestigious boarding schools, even though their personal finances were modest at best. Talent, hardwork and a good education clearly paid off for Juan.

Isaac has met Juan a few times--at family gatherings--weddings, and, most recently, the April funeral of Isaac's grandfather, who also was Williams' first cousin. At that funeral Isaac sang the old gospel song, "His Eye is On the Sparrow," which is why Williams remembers Isaac. Williams wrote a book on African American religious music, in which he talked about that very song.

Besides a common interest on music, Isaac, like his celebrity cousin, encountered his own bit of censorship during the recent campaign at South High School.

Administrators required all candidates to present advanced copies of their speeches for review, and one sentence in Isaac's presidential campaign speech was deleted. In its original form, the speech quoted Sarah Palin. Isaac wished to say, "The great political leader Sarah Palin once said, 'I can see Russia from my house.' While I can't see Russia from my house, I can see a freshman class excited and movtivated to improve their school."

The administration felt mentioning Sarah Palin might "offend people" so they edited it from the speech. Instead Isaac was permitted to say, "While I can't see Russia from my house, I can see a freshman class . . . "

Perhaps there was a suggestion of mockery in Isaac's initial quote that the administration frowned on. However, the tone of Isaac's speech was far more civil than the name calling, distortions and outright lies we're being subjected to this campaign season.

While news organizations like NPR and school administrators steer clear of public discourse that expresses personal opinions that could offend, who is there to protect the public from the unending onslaught of highly politicized messages we encounter on television, in direct mail pieces and on the radio. And these messages don't come from the mouths of identifiable speakers, but are paid for by undisclosed donors whose motivations are unknown to listeners. Something seems out of whack here.

OK, I'm ranting a bit. For a person who loves the First Amendment (which guarantees both free speech AND religion, are you reading this Christine O'Donnell?) I'm not looking to restrict free speech. However, is speech created by unknown persons that includes lies and distortions meant to sway public opinion protected by our Constitution? I don't think so. However, it seems wrong that in a year when liars are free to spew filth from behind their big rocks without fear of retribution, Juan Williams gets fired for expressing his reaction (which I share) to Muslims on airplanes post 9-11, and Isaac Piecuch is prohibited from saying the name "Sarah Palin" in a campaign speech.

In another interesting election twist at South High School, like many current candidates, Isaac feared being too closely associated with the U.S. President and chose not to hang his favorite campaign poster that read: "Vote for Isaac, he kind of looks like Obama."