Events highlight press freedoms, election history parallels
What do First Amendment rights to free speech and free press mean in the age of the Internet, blogs and 24/7 news cycles? How do American liberties compare with other nations? Are there parallels and similarities between the presidential races of 1968 and 2008?
Those topics and others will be addressed in the annual Constitution Day programs at Kirkwood Community College. Free forums are set for both the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City campuses on Wednesday, Sept. 17. In Cedar Rapids a video presentation and panel discussion will be presented from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Iowa Rooms, third floor of Iowa Hall. Iowa City discussions are set for the Campus Commons on Lower Muscatine Road, 1 to 3 p.m.
The concept for Constitution Day came from Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a noted champion of U.S. Constitutional awareness in schools and the general populace. Some type of programming is a legal mandate to all colleges receiving federal dollars, but Kirkwood Social Science/Career Option Dean Kathleen Van Steenhuyse said the college “embraced the opportunity” to do more with the requirement.
“Our faculty members have been active and creative in building learning events well before this government mandate came along. We believe these two forums give both Cedar Rapids and Iowa City residents and our students a chance to participate,” Van Steenhuyse added.
The Cedar Rapids forum will address the topic “The High Price of Free Speech: Exploring Free Speech/Free Press Issues in the United States and Beyond.” The program will center on a recently produced documentary on the oppression of dissidents, writers and others in the Soviet Union. Kirkwood Communications Media/PR Assistant Professor Gale Smetana traveled to Russia in 2006, where she visited the Perm -36 labor camp. Her documentary focuses on a dissident couple imprisoned for their activism, who later emigrated to the U.S. The video reveals the struggles of Russians to share ideas amid a repressive system.
A panel discussion will follow the documentary showing, featuring Kirkwood panelists Steve Carpenter, Rose Kodet, Steve Owen, Olga Petrova, Arron Wings and Smetana.
The Iowa City Kirkwood forum, 1 to 3 p.m. will consider “A Tale of Two Campaigns: 1968 and 2008.” Social Science faculty members and historians George Patterson and David McMahon will lead the talk, with input from invited guests. Patterson will consider the similarities and differences of the two historic presidential campaigns, with a special focus on the ill-fated 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. McMahon will then moderate a discussion on the 2008 presidential campaign with audience members and invited guests.
All Kirkwood Constitution Day events are free and open to the public. More information is available on the Kirkwood Web site:
http://faculty.kirkwood.edu/lyost/Constitution/2008_homepage.html