Zappadan: The Reason for the Season

This is Frank Zappa speaking before Congress concerning the possible censorship of musical art. This is only one part of his testimony with full testimony easily found elsewhere. The man was a genius both musically and it turns out, politically. His defense of the First Amendment of the Constitution should be seen by all students beginning at the high school level. Zappa, along with John Denver, Dee Snyder, and others came before Congress and proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that those in power in this great land will often jump on an issue and consequently try to destroy lives, to cover up or divert attention away from issues that are of real importance nationally. This whole affair should have been a non issue. The fact that this occured a quarter of a century ago does not matter. The danger still lurks. Zappa and others should be considered American heroes actually for their defense of the First Amendment. The group that caused all of this alarm (at taxpayers expense), was led by one Tipper Gore. There may never have been a more silly leftist that stepped to the goose than this woman. The real crux of the matter here is that she and her allies were taken seriously and there was a near cataclysm that would have resulted in censorship. Those that we elect to high office should always be watched and never ever really trusted. This is not a partisan issue. Those that run for high office generally are anti social personalities and are far more likely to damage freedom than further it. It reminds me a bit of the fairly recent "steroids in baseball" ridiculousness. There are now, as there were then, many issues of great importance and we, the American people, were distracted by nonsense on both occassions.