Written by: Clayton Barker
 
As protests take place around our country, we are quickly reminded of the freedoms we have. Protesting being one of these freedoms, better known as assembly.
If you’re not familiar with these protests, they revolve around Ferguson, Missouri and New York as racial issues have heightened.
Mike Brown, an African American from Ferguson Missouri, who was shot and killed by a white police officer named Darren Wilson has been a hot topic lately. Another man by the name Eric Garner was put into a chokehold by a New York police officer. Garner was selling illegal cigarettes, which certainly is not worth his life.
Eric Garner repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe,” as the officer held him in a chokehold too long. This resulted in death of Garner.
Garner’s death was caused by a series of health problems including a heart attack and asthma attack which was, undoubtedly, triggered by the chokehold. The kooky part of this case is that the whole situation is on YouTube. The officer won’t serve time for this at all.
These situations have caused uproar because of the racial differences and what some people think is injustice. Whether you agree with the verdicts coming from the justice system, involving Darren Wilson and Eric Garner isn’t anything I want to debate.
My main point from this article that I hope you grasp is that the media will stretch the truth and lie to us as citizens. Following this, the government will use the media’s absurd broadcasting to their advantage.
The situations that have unfolded in Ferguson and in New York have now fixated the public; this is because of the media’s non-stop presentation of these problems. The government at this same time will happily create and pass bills behind our backs, which is what we should be really worried about. These bills the government is passing don’t make the media coverage because they’re too focused on the extreme racism that is taking place all throughout this country.
If I controlled the media, I would of course cover these racial issues happening around our country because it is bringing in views; citizens are very interested in these topics. The topics that the news networks cover might be in the public best interest but aren’t always the public’s biggest problem.
A firsthand example of this coming from Michigan is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). This is a bill right now that Michigan and other states are trying to pass. The RFRA is meant to protect your own religion from other religions. This would take place in public businesses. The summoning of this bill is that it’s exceedingly discriminatory.
Say I own a dry cleaning business, as a Catholic dry cleaner owner I don’t serve gay/lesbian people; this is only for the protection of my religion not the discrimination of gay people being themselves. We can change the scenario up, I still own the dry cleaning business, and I’m a Jewish man, I don’t have to serve Christians because I don’t follow their religion, but again this is for self-protection.
This bill to me seems more than anything a way for business owners to discriminate. The politicians again do play a role in the economy and business ownership. Fred Upton, Kalamazoo’s own representative is a partial owner of Whirlpool Corporation a massive business. Being one of these voters for the RFRA, he could use this to his advantage to who he discriminates.
Again Fred Upton and his associates in Lansing use the media’s projection on racism and create bills while the news networks don’t care to cover it. Understand if this bill were to pass, the massive Whirlpool Corporation, could if it wanted sell to only one specific group of religious people in Michigan and any other states where this bill is present. Again this serves 170 countries having a terrible effect on the groups of religions discriminated against.
The media is just feeding off absent minded viewers and the government’s productively hiding behind them, all fueled by money and greed with power in mind. What you see in the news is NOT necessarily true. For this I say, keep a dubious mind and educate yourself through unbiased sources and with that, edify those around you.