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As an American, I’m required to have opinions about every "outrageous" story that circulates all over the damn Faceblogsprawl.
Which means you will now get an unsolicited earful about Emma Sullivan, the high school student from Kansas who is in dutch with Gov. Sam Brownback (or at least with his PR flack) over a tweet.
Specifically, a tweet tweeted by Sullivan during a Kansas Youth in Government field trip to Topeka, in which she said:
It was a joke – she never said any such thing to Brownback – but Brownback’s director of communication, Sherriene Jones-Sontag, said the tweet “wasn’t respectful” and promptly informed Youth in Government, which, in turn, promptly informed Sullivan’s school principal, who in turn called Sullivan to the office and demanded she apologize to the governor.
Sullivan, in turn, was initially going to do so, if only because she didn’t want her chances at college ruined, but has since decided to hell with it.
Obviously, there’s a lot going on here contextually – particularly the whole Free Speech angle. Just what that angle is, as always depends on who you ask.
For some people, it’s about the right to criticize/make jokes about public figures without recrimination, which used to be an American tradition until George W Bush became president, after which it became impossible to make fun of any politician without being accused of being biased and/or unpatriotic by whoever voted for him/her.
For others, it’s not so much what she said as the fact that she said it on a social media site where lots of people could actually read it (and Sullivan is hardly the first high school student to get in trouble for posting opinions that got them in trouble at school).
For others still, it’s not so much what she said or that she said it on the Interwub but the way she said it.
The last one is what grabs my attention, because for my money, the key word in the whole story (paraphrased) is “disrespectful”. That’s what bugged Jones-Sontag about Sullivan’s post that drove her to report Sullivan in the first place.
It occurs to me there are two ways of parsing the word “disrespectful” here: (1) saying something in an uncivilized manner unbecoming of the decorum of the event she was attending, or (2) disrespecting the authority of the governor of Kansas.
If Jones-Sontag meant Option 1, she might have a point if Sullivan said it in some official context within the discourse of the event (or actually told Brownback in person, “Dude, you suck”) – which, of course, she didn’t. Even if she had, an argument could be made that it’s disingenuous for a Republican to lecture a teenager on respectful discourse in this age of cable TV news, talk radio, the average Tea Party rally and Joe “You Lie!” Wilson. Still, just because Rush Limbaugh does it all the time doesn’t mean everyone else has to, and I’m generally in favor of being part of the solution, not the problem, so I wouldn’t spend a lot of energy pushing this point.
If Jones-Sontag meant Option 2 – the “respect mah authoritay!” card … Well, as others have pointed out, it’s a hell of a civic lesson to teach a high-school student – it’s not okay to bad-mouth The Governor, because Authority command Respect, and you will respect it. It reminds me of the United Airlines stewardess who reminded passengers of the “no walking around when the seat belt sign is lit" rule by telling them in a stern tone to “respect the Captain’s authority”. It’s that sort of mentality. Authority is Right. Obey. Etc.
In which case, yeah, I’ve got a huge problem with that. But then I’ve never really respected authority. I’ve caved into it out of expedience many times. But respect it? Ha ha. No.
Either way, it was silly of Jones-Sontag to get in a snit over some teenage tweet, not least because it was a tweet that maybe 40 people in Kansas saw, and now it’s been read by about half the country and makes Sam Brownback look like an over-sensitive dingbat. Well played, Ms Jones-Sontag.
DISCLAIMER: To be clear, I don’t know that Brownback personally has anything to do with any of this. Yet. For a start, Brownback isn't the one demanding the apology – it’s Sullivan’s principal. Also, Brownback has yet to comment directly on all this, and while it could be assumed that Jones-Sontag speaks for him, comms directors have been known to take the initiative in ways the people they represent wish they hadn’t.
Developing …
You can’t say that on Twitter
This is dF
Which means you will now get an unsolicited earful about Emma Sullivan, the high school student from Kansas who is in dutch with Gov. Sam Brownback (or at least with his PR flack) over a tweet.
Specifically, a tweet tweeted by Sullivan during a Kansas Youth in Government field trip to Topeka, in which she said:
"Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot."
It was a joke – she never said any such thing to Brownback – but Brownback’s director of communication, Sherriene Jones-Sontag, said the tweet “wasn’t respectful” and promptly informed Youth in Government, which, in turn, promptly informed Sullivan’s school principal, who in turn called Sullivan to the office and demanded she apologize to the governor.
Sullivan, in turn, was initially going to do so, if only because she didn’t want her chances at college ruined, but has since decided to hell with it.
Obviously, there’s a lot going on here contextually – particularly the whole Free Speech angle. Just what that angle is, as always depends on who you ask.
For some people, it’s about the right to criticize/make jokes about public figures without recrimination, which used to be an American tradition until George W Bush became president, after which it became impossible to make fun of any politician without being accused of being biased and/or unpatriotic by whoever voted for him/her.
For others, it’s not so much what she said as the fact that she said it on a social media site where lots of people could actually read it (and Sullivan is hardly the first high school student to get in trouble for posting opinions that got them in trouble at school).
For others still, it’s not so much what she said or that she said it on the Interwub but the way she said it.
The last one is what grabs my attention, because for my money, the key word in the whole story (paraphrased) is “disrespectful”. That’s what bugged Jones-Sontag about Sullivan’s post that drove her to report Sullivan in the first place.
It occurs to me there are two ways of parsing the word “disrespectful” here: (1) saying something in an uncivilized manner unbecoming of the decorum of the event she was attending, or (2) disrespecting the authority of the governor of Kansas.
If Jones-Sontag meant Option 1, she might have a point if Sullivan said it in some official context within the discourse of the event (or actually told Brownback in person, “Dude, you suck”) – which, of course, she didn’t. Even if she had, an argument could be made that it’s disingenuous for a Republican to lecture a teenager on respectful discourse in this age of cable TV news, talk radio, the average Tea Party rally and Joe “You Lie!” Wilson. Still, just because Rush Limbaugh does it all the time doesn’t mean everyone else has to, and I’m generally in favor of being part of the solution, not the problem, so I wouldn’t spend a lot of energy pushing this point.
If Jones-Sontag meant Option 2 – the “respect mah authoritay!” card … Well, as others have pointed out, it’s a hell of a civic lesson to teach a high-school student – it’s not okay to bad-mouth The Governor, because Authority command Respect, and you will respect it. It reminds me of the United Airlines stewardess who reminded passengers of the “no walking around when the seat belt sign is lit" rule by telling them in a stern tone to “respect the Captain’s authority”. It’s that sort of mentality. Authority is Right. Obey. Etc.
In which case, yeah, I’ve got a huge problem with that. But then I’ve never really respected authority. I’ve caved into it out of expedience many times. But respect it? Ha ha. No.
Either way, it was silly of Jones-Sontag to get in a snit over some teenage tweet, not least because it was a tweet that maybe 40 people in Kansas saw, and now it’s been read by about half the country and makes Sam Brownback look like an over-sensitive dingbat. Well played, Ms Jones-Sontag.
DISCLAIMER: To be clear, I don’t know that Brownback personally has anything to do with any of this. Yet. For a start, Brownback isn't the one demanding the apology – it’s Sullivan’s principal. Also, Brownback has yet to comment directly on all this, and while it could be assumed that Jones-Sontag speaks for him, comms directors have been known to take the initiative in ways the people they represent wish they hadn’t.
Developing …
You can’t say that on Twitter
This is dF
