The Free Spech Issue, Vol. 1, Issue 3

Why does Foliage exist?

Why does the picture keep shrinking?

Why would someone bother with their own school newspaper?

Why is the paper asking rhetorical questions?

(this is The Free Speech Issue)

1. Why Foliage Exists –

Firstly, Foliage is powered almost entirely by spite and bitterness, combined with whimsy. It exists because it has been planning to exist for too many years.

More importantly, Foliage exists because a media monopoly should not exist anywhere in the world, and as much as we are pleased by the development of the Record into something perhaps more meaningful than a standard High School newspaper, it’s being school-sponsored and school-controlled invalidate any potential it had for provoking institutional change.

Lost half of you there. Which is a pity, but not something that needs pandering to. The Record does exactly what a paper controlled by a government is supposed to – report on relevant issues, but never expose serious flaws (i.e.: this school is so very, very lacking in Zombie preparation that we will not be able to survive another October). Also, graduating classes are about half the size of entering freshman classes, which is a sign of a failure on such a large scale that it cannot be attributed to individuals themselves. Things are wrong with our school, and perhaps it’s too small an arena for attention from paid professionals, and it might seem like too much to ask high-schoolers to deal with, but we of Foliage believe that this work is still relevant in the microcosm of AHS.

This is Not the Record was promising. It was a huge production, seemingly unaffiliated with anything, and it meant to provide a critical voice. Had it succeeded, had it not been threatened out of existence, the paper you’re holding would be focusing on how to catch leprechauns and the best uses for fools gold. Instead, with the emergent watchdog shunned out of existence, the humorous approach must be set aside to allow, instead, for something less entertaining, and instead more hideously realistic.

2. The Need for a Free Speech Issue

There’s no holiday to tie this into - instead, the reason for this issue is two cartoons. The cartoons, as you may be aware, were allowed to be published and then, after criticism, a second edition of the paper was produced, with new comics in place of the “Hoe bags” and “Uh-oh Oreos”. The cost of printing the paper is, I believe, estimated at a few hundred dollars an issue. Most of the cost isn’t passed on to the school, as the paper is funded by ads for organizations who can take advantage of marketing to “this schools unique population” (another objection, but an objection for latter). Still, re-printing a paper is just not done. The greats, the pillars of journalism, issue a three-sentence apology for such issues, and that is a cost they don’t want. Our paper reprints the entire issue on behalf of two comics.

Were the comics tasteless? Debatably. Could an editor have caught them? Assuredly. Are we overlooking the irony of pseudo-racist cartoons in a paper “Celebrating Diversity”? Yeah, yeah we are. The paper had no objections to these being printed in the first place; it took outside complaints to cause the reaction that followed. Self-censorship was lacking, and it took other forces to compel a change in behavior.

Printing non-offensive cartoons is not a bad thing; quite often, it’s a mediocre thing, but it isn’t inherently bad. However, making a statement, putting something out there, and then not having the guts to stick to it, to adequately defend that act, or even to issue a real, formal apology, is weak. The media does not exist to hide information; the media exists to expose information as much as possible.

The paper should not have been reprinted. The cartoonist can have his comics, and suffer the consequences of them being out there, but the paper shouldn’t gloss over the speech of its contributors, especially not after the fact. Hiding reality does no good; allowing it to become a spark for intelligent discussion on racism is far, far more beneficial. This a challenge out there, a gauntlet thrown to the Record – can you justify this mistake? Can you report on your own flaw, and make something meaningful out of it? You messed up, and so now the only decent option available to you is to clean it up, and explain why the change of heart, why the bananas, and why the disdainful attitudes of the editors towards even acknowledging the problem.

AHS Foliage isn’t an official organization, has no agenda other than what is stated in the various pieces of print you may be holding, and is really nothing to get terribly upset about. Excepting when you should be getting terribly upset. No need to prosecute us.