Freedom of the Press

Tulelake, CA.-- Editorial:

First Amendment: Religion and Expression

What is the First Amendment?

"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."

I will not be told by anyone that it is “none of my business”, small town or not. I also will not tolerated someone getting in my way of taking pictures because they want to protect one of their relatives that may be involved in a illegal situation.

Everyone in this community has a right to know what is going on in this community. And as long as it is within the realms of free speech, AND within my power to do so, it is the right of everyone to know, the WE THE PEOPLE TO KNOW.

I DO NOT AND HAVE NOT EVER PLAYED FAVORITES WITH ANYONE IN MY NEWS ARTICLES FOR ANY REASON AND NEVER WILL.

I am not like that, and never will be. I used to be an ESL teacher at one time. I taught English as a second Language for three years in Seoul, South Korea. Which at that time was the third largest city in the world. Before that I was an Instructional aide for the Long Beach Unified School District while attending Long Beach City College and working on my AA Degree in Theatre Arts/ Telecommunications and on June 16th, 1978 graduated with my AA Degree.

I also worked for the Bellflower Unified School District and Paramount Unified School District. School Districts where I had at one time attended schools in their district. We moved around a lot when I was kid.

Then, the last time I was in a classroom as a teacher was for Modoc Unified School District. My Mom and I moved down there to Alturas, so that I could work as a substitute teacher. The only problem is they had to call me the day before in-order for me to find someone to watch my Mom as she had dementia and I was her full time caregiver 24/7. The last school age of students I worked with were the K-4 class at Canby Elementary School in Canby,CA. There were 11 students in the class from K-4. And they were a great group to have in a classroom. And their regular teacher Mary left the best lesson plan I had ever worked with in all my time working as a substitute teacher, no offense to the other great teachers there. The truth is the truth and no favorites. She had it down to 15 minutes intervals and boy did the day fly by, never a dull moment. In other words, I did not have to wing it.

And one thing you never do, is play favorites. The second you play favorites all respect for you is thrown out the window.

Well, that is the same here in Tulelake and writing news stories. The second I show a bit of favoritism in anyway shape or form. Not only is my respect thrown out the window, so is any creditability I may have had before. You have no idea how hard it is sometimes, to write a news article and not let my personal feelings get the best of me, good, or bad.

So, I hope the next time someone sees me taking pictures of situation that they will respect my rights to do my job according to article one of the United States Constitution. Especially if it happens to hit too close to home to their liking as I did not create the situation, they did or someone they love did. — at Tulelake, California.