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Greenlee Associate Professor Barbara Mack and Jim Hutter, political science associate professor, debate First Amendment freedoms and the regulation of speech. Photo by Katie Brandt, Greenlee Web Team.

Freedom rings at annual First Amendment Day

By Trent Nusbaum
Greenlee Web Team

Greenlee School Director Michael Bugeja kicked off the second annual First Amendment Day on April 15 by announcing to the crowd, “We walk the walk so you can talk the talk. And today on First Amendment Day we invite you to walk with us.”

Students and faculty gathered in central campus to partake of food and festivities, and celebrate the five freedoms provided by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and petition.

Students, faculty, alumni and local leaders debated hot topics on soapboxes, providing the entertainment during the overcast day. The religious confronted atheists, and in the most common theme of the day, Republicans faced off against Democrats.

Views were expressed, issues were debated and tempers flared. Maybe no one’s views were changed, but it was clear the day’s purpose was accomplished: freedom of expression.

Terry Anderson, ISU alumnus, speaks to the crowd on Central Campus about First Amendment freedoms. Photo by Katie Brandt, Greenlee Web Team.

"Free press is vital to our society,” special guest Terry Anderson told the crowd of about 200 during the evening program. “We are brought up to understand these things… We still have to fight for it.”

Anderson, the Associated Press Middle East correspondent who was held hostage in Lebanon for seven years by Shite Muslim militants, was joined by journalists Ann Cooper and Larry Heinzerling for the panel discussion, “Attacks on the Press—Not Just Abroad.”

Cooper, who like Anderson graduated from Iowa State with a journalism degree in the 1970s, is executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Heinzerling has worked for the Associated Press for 35 years as a reporter, editor, bureau chief, corporate executive, and currently as the deputy international editor for World Services.

The panelists touched on many issues, including the effects of 9/11 and terrorism on journalism, the current presidential administration’s continuing trend of suppressing information from the public, and the risks journalists take all over the world.

GSB President Sophia Magill and Iowa State Daily reporter Tom Barton discuss student government during the First Amendment Day on Central Campus. Photos by Katie Brandt, Greenlee Web Team.	Ann Cooper, ISU alumna and executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, speaks on Central Campus.

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Last updated: April 20, 2004
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