The Prohibition of "High Fives" in America

Four Rebels

I was watching Fox News this morning and a disturbing segment caught my attention.  It seems that the Bronx High School of Science, in New York City, is forbidding students who have been accepted to prestigious universities to celebrate their accomplishment with other students for fear of offending those who were not accepted.  For example, students cannot evem give a "high five" to their friends nor tell peers of lesser scholastic acumen of their acceptance.  Some may say this is ludicrous and indicates that we're becoming a nation of wussies, but I see it as a much more serious problem: another attack on our freedom of speech.

Taking this ban to its next logical step,  all schools should prohibit the use of tests to determine the academic achievements of their students.  Tests are a clear way of demonstrating scholastic achievement and separating achievers from non-achievers.  Why make those who fail testing feel bad?  And if we must test students in order to intelligently assign them to the appropriate academic institution, then we must logically forbid them to discuss their test results as this will make the failed students feel inferior; heaven forbid.

All forms of competition should also be banned in order to protect losers from winners.  Everyone must be equal, just as all religions must be--even those that say theirs is the only true religion and those who disagree should "pay the price".

We are slowly eroding the US Constitution.  It isn't about feelings, it's about freedoms.  The freedom of speech isn't about speech that is acceptable to us--it's about all speech, especially speech that can be offensive to some of us.  When we tell students that they cannot celebrate their achievements because it might make another student with lesser academic ability feel upset, we are trampling on the Constitution.  We are also implying that inferiority is okay and we will look the other way when you fail.

We are not simply becoming a nation of wusses--we are becoming a nation with less freedoms than we had before Obama.  This is not okay.  This is not the United States of America that I grew up in and whose flag I saluted in the classroom; a place where saluting the flag is no longer permitted.  The country where it is slowly becoming illegal to say "God bless America."  



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