Saturday, September 29, 2007

The Revenge of the Blue Bunny Campaign

Nathan Fisher has committed no crime. Yet, we find out today that he resigned under duress (see the comments of Imprint of Fear). According to a source within the JulieGroup, the choice is reserved for teachers who are perceived to be sex offenders. There's a laissez-faire nod and wink from the teachers unions that this is okay. Or, at least it was prior to the internet age.

The Nate Fisher case has broken the pattern. You see, Nate Fisher is not a sex offender. In fact, after hours of reading it becomes clear that Nate Fisher is a rock-star in the world of high school English teachers. I have yet to read or hear a bad word said about this guy by anyone who's been exposed to him for more than a few days.

Teacher popularity ratings never impress me but the students at Guilford were sticking up for this guy before they were silenced. And what they were saying about Nate would make his parents proud.

Nate was being set up by extremely disingenuous parties and I'll blog on some possible reasons tomorrow. Nor could Nate have known he was being put in double-jeopardy by resigning.

If yelling "Fire!" in a packed theater is not protected free speech then pronouncing a fellow citizen a sexual predator, pervert, or deviant is not either. This is hate speech and a hate crime. This is worse than calling a black - nigger, a jew a kike, or a chinese citizen a koolie.

Yet Nate Fisher has been called these things because of strongly worded suggestions from the accuser's family. A family who includes a conspiring police detective.

We need to know who filed the criminal complaint against Nathan Fisher. The family claims it wasn't one of them. Yet the rabid stalking of Nate Fisher continues in blog after blog.

We know what happens to people accused of these crimes. They fall victim to depression - they may commit suicide, they may be entrapped by out-of-control, self-appointed morality police who invent ah-ha scenarios to flog them even more, or maybe he's just jailed and found hanging from the cell one day - oops!

We know too well what false allegations can mean. Yes we do.

Nate Fisher has committed no crime nor was his judgment suspect. Tomorrow we'll talk about this parental exploit more.

But today, we need to insist that Nate Fisher's resignation is rejected not only because it is systematic extortion of his reputation but because the school did not have the facts that we're beginning to compile.

To this end and to the proposition that teenagers have an inalienable right to free speech I'm proposing a children's campaign to start immediately. Let's model it after the 'V' is for Vendetta fictional social protest.

This is an open letter to Daniel Clowes offer to open source the Blue Bunny and allow graphics novel artists and writers invent T-shirt designs that promote the rehiring of Nate Fisher or the free speech of teenagers (see Avery Doniger). We need to have students across the country wear these shirts to school until Nate is rehired.

Furthermore, I am asking Halloween mask companies to likewise produce Blue Bunny masks to endorse free speech for all teens. Let's make this conviction unanimous across the country.

Oh, I almost forgot. Open source Blue Bunny as long as the proceeds go to the Julie Amero Defense Fund, Avery Doninger Defense Fund, ACLU, Nathan Fisher defense team, Anti-Defamation League or other legal defense fund.

This can happen if you want it to.

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