WEEKLYPRESS.COM · UCREVIEW.COM · JULY 11· 2012 3


LETTERS: H


Hi Pete,


i Tim, I appreciate the efforts of your group to keep his- tory alive, but I have to disagree with comments you


made in the Weekly Press/Philadelphia about “freedom of speech” and “liberty”. (Also appeared in the UC Review)


From the article: “Tim Mitchell, a Captain in the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment has mixed feelings about the Occupy movement’s presence this year. Given that the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment “por- trays a time period when liberty was born, I want to say good for them,” Mitchell said. Even though Mitchell doesn’t share the occupy movements beliefs, “ I also think that they have every right to exercise their liberty and their 1st amendment rights. After all, the concept of free speech was born here”. Perhaps a certain kind of “free speech” and “liber-


ty” were developed and sustained by early American lead- ers, but they did not invent those concepts. From the wikipedia article on freedom of speech: “Concepts of freedom of speech can be found in early hu- man rights documents.[3] England’s Bill of Rights 1689 granted ‘freedom of speech in Parliament’ and the Dec- laration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted during the French Revolution in 1789, specifically affirmed freedom of speech as an inalienable right.[4] The Declara- tion provides for freedom of expression in Article 11, which states that: “The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.”[5]” and then from the same article: “Freedom of speech and expression has a long history


that predates modern international human rights instru- ments.[10] It is thought that ancient Athens’ democratic ideology of free speech may have emerged in the late 6th or early 5th century BC.[11] Two of the most cherished values of the Roman Republic were freedom of religion and freedom of speech.[12] In Islamic ethics, freedom of speech was first declared in the Rashidun period by the caliph Umar in the 7th century AD.[13][verification needed] In the Abbasid Caliphate period, freedom of speech was also declared by al-Hashimi (a cousin of Caliph al-Ma’mun) in a letter to one of the religious opponents he was attempting to convert through reason.[14]”. This article in wikipedia on liberty http://en.wikipedia.


org/wiki/Liberty is also pretty good and describes how previous civilizations approached the concept. I realize that wikipedia is only one source of knowledge,


but it does indicate points of contact for further study. Perhaps I misinterpreted your comments and you are


already knowledgeable about the development/evolution of political or philosophical concepts. However, I felt justified in sending you a communication about your possible errors. Regards, Pete Hoge.


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I appreciate your com- ments, it demonstrates that you care about history. Per- haps, I should have been a little more specific with that comment during the inter- view, modern American liberty, in my mind, would be more appropriate in this case. As for the excerpt from wikipedia, England’s bill of rights granted free- dom of speech in parlia- ment. If you recall, the colonists rebelled because parliament did not extend those basic rights to them and further denied them representation in the British government. The French Revolution doesn’t apply because we already had our constitution, though the French had some influence. So, I do acknowledge you have a good point and wiki is pretty cool but the American concept of liberty surpasses any in history. The founders were very educated men who took what they knew about the great societies throughout history and came up with a form of government and the idea of “ liberty “ unequaled in modern times.


Tim Mitchell


Political updates on the State & Local Level


The UC Review and Weekly


Press compile political news that affects voters each week on the city and state level to keep readers more abreast of local politics. If there’s an is- sue you would like included in this column, please email it to newsdesk@pressreview. net by the Monday, noontime deadline!


City Controller Alan Butkovitz finds Payroll & Overtime Errors Found in Police Department Audit. A sample testing of the PPD’s processing of overtime showed that officers would enter their own time into the Department’s payroll system, and then the payroll would be prepared without the required supervisory approval. About 20 percent of the time, four officers entered their own time onto the daily attendance record. On 13 of the 16 occasions, overtime was recorded as having been worked. The Controller’s audit also dis- covered employees were being paid in error for overtime because the indi- vidual preparing the payroll included the employees’ half-hour lunches as time worked, however regulation considers the lunch break as unpaid time. For overtime to be considered for this class of employees, they must work an additional half-hour in an eight-hour work day. In addition, other findings from the audit in-


cluded: the PPD was unable to provide approved docu- ments sustaining overtime worked, daily assignment sheets lacked supervisory approval and not in compli- ance with department regu- lations, and training-grant billings and collections were not processed in accordance with City procedures to ensure that payments are remitted to the City.


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