Think what you want, and let me do the same

America is the greatest country on Earth. Unfortunately, its citizens are a becoming a bunch of hypocrites.

Amendment I:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

If you get the chance, read the whole Constitution -- you might learn something. (You can find it at http://www.house.gov/Educat.html. I only have the time to deal with the First Amendment. I go to class too, ya know.)

The First Amendment initially deals with the freedom of religion.

This would be the freedom upon which this country was founded. It's the statement that swiftly brushes away idiotic issues like school prayer and Bible readings. But religious groups get together and do their best to enforce their religion and beliefs on us.

Groups like the Parent's Music Resource Center, which were backed by Christian organizations, successfully enforced their religious beliefs on everybody.

I remember being carded when I went to pick up a Red Hot Chili Peppers album a few years back.

This may surprise you, but there are some people that actually believe there is a big red guy with horns and a pointy tail who will get us if we are not good. And we think the Greeks were silly.

What unenlightened fools! There aren't many Gods, there is one God.

But hey, believe in whatever mystical creatures you want. I'll believe in me. I am not going to ask you to stop feeding your children flesh and blood on Sunday. Just don't tell my kids that they can't go get the new Weezer tape. Don't try to save me, just stay away.

On to the second part. Freedom of speech. Umm . . . here's a no-brainer. You are legally allowed to say whatever you want. Believe it or not, this extends to the debate that won't go away -- book banning.

Once again, one of my favorite books has come under fire. Huckleberry Finn. You see, in America in the '90s, we can not only find life on Mars, communicate all over the world instantaneously and clone sheep, we can go back and rewrite history.

It's almost as if parents and teachers are saying, "We have no need to teach children or young adults in high school books like Huckleberry Finn that talk about slavery or the slave situation because it never happened. Maybe we can shield our children from anything bad, until they are at least thirty."

Once in a while a child in America, regardless of race, is going to hear the word nigger. (Would you believe it, that wasn't in my spell checker?) I am sorry. There are derogatory words for every race and the world is an ugly place. This extends to all races and genders. Nobody wants to be offended.

In my column two weeks ago, I described a "girl" in my class. When I saw the column, after it had been printed, I noticed that the word "girl" had been changed to "woman."

In the U.S.A. there are a lot of people that are trying to take away your rights. We are so afraid that someone may hurt our feelings that we want to bar certain groups from speaking.

I remember a letter to the editor last semester that said something along the lines of. "Free speech should be limited when it comes to racial slurs and comments about physical character." That's right, people should go to jail and be fined for that.

There should be a "No Mean" Constitutional Amendment. We need to make sure that anything offensive is illegal.

There are a few people who are trying to pass a flag-burning amendment, making it a federal crime to burn a flag. Let me tell you the first thing that I am going to when that passes: Burn a flag.

Well, I hope that the First Amendment has been well covered. We have to leave the genius of the Constitution alone. You have the RIGHT to say anything you want, even if you may hurt someone's feelings. You have the RIGHT to practice whatever religion that you want.

Even if you feel alone in your own weird religious rituals, don't go out and recruit and try to legislate your own beliefs.

I love America; I love all of its diversity because that's what gives us the knowledge acquired by all the people and cultures on Earth.

But we shouldn't be hypocrites anymore. We should say that we stand for freedom and then limit it every chance we get.

And we shouldn't be offended so easily. Its okay to let a few things go. What do you think?