Freedom of Speech and Ozzie

Ozzie Guillen

Fidel Castro

Since when did an employer gain the right to censure an employee for something an employee said?  Since when did the U.S. Constitution's Freedom of Speech provision get trumped by "what's good for the team"?  Or is it "what's good for the pocketbook"?

Ozzie Guillen's five-game suspension by the Miami Marlins flies in the face of the Constitution, doesn't it?  And for talking about Castro?  Come on!

Here's what Guillen said:  "I love Fidel Castro. . . I respect Fidel Castro. You know why?  A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that son of a bitch is still here."

Isn't everything Guillen says in the above quotation true?  How can Miami's Cuban community object to the truth?  I don't like Castro.  He may have helped kill JFK, my favorite U.S. president, but I know the truth when I see it.  Castro is a bad guy, but shouldn't Guillen be able to give the Cuban dictator grudging respect--that's what it is, isn't it, grudging respect? 

I'm mystified when employees of a company get in trouble for something they say especially when what they say has nothing to do with the company, in this case the Miami Marlins.  "Oh, it's offensive to the Cuban community in Miami," the team says.  So what?  What Ozzie says has nothing to do with baseball.  Marlin management is afraid that Cuban-Americans won't come to the new stadium to watch the team.  That's the reason for the suspension, to appease them.

The Marlins are throwing the Cuban community a bone, OZZIE!  And remember Ozzie told the truth!  Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh lie every day on radio and TV, but nobody says sqat diddley about them.  And Hannity, Coulter, and Limbaugh should not be fired because lies are protected by the Constitution just as much as the truth is (It hurts me to say that!).

I remember in the early 1990's when we had the literary magazine controversy at Fremd High School.  The Daily Herald and the Chicago Tribune were involved in a newspaper war so when the adviser of the literary magazine, Kevin Brewner, was fired by the principal, the newspapers went crazy.  There were literally reporters knocking on the window of the teacher's lounge wanting to talk to Brewner.

An edict came down from the administration telling ALL Fremd employees NOT to say anything to the press about "internal school matters."  Brewner  ignored the order.  Nothing happened.

Members of the Westport Baptist Church showed up twice in Galesburg, Illinois at the funerals of dead soldiers.  They held up signs that said, "God hates fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers," as  grieving family members filed into the church.  The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that Westport members were exercising their right of freedom of speech.

Why can't Ozzie Guillen exercise his?

Why isn't the ACLU arguing for Ozzie?  Where are they?

Unfortunately, freedom of speech in the United States is selective.  We pick and choose who will get the right of free speech.  Sorry, Ozzie, you don't get the right.