Jacie Williams is a junior majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].How are our tax dollars spent? This is a question that anyone paying taxes should be asking our government. If paying taxes does not benefit us, then why should we pay them?
We have our representation now, but what are our representatives doing? We have a right to know how our money is being spent.
I am not talking about the billions we have spent on the war, or our lack of adequate funding for schools here. Nor am I talking about the outrageous amount of money our country’s lawmakers are paid.
I am talking about a session held by a subcommittee for the House of Representatives headed by chairman Bobby Rush of Illinois.
For those of you who don’t know, the committee met recently to discuss hip-hop music lyrics and the impact rap lyrics have on American society.
There are songs that I believe have unnecessary profanity in them. I enjoy the edited radio version of some songs as much as I enjoy the unedited songs. The quality of the music would not be lost if the lyrics were less vulgar.
So while I might not be jumping up and down at the injustice of the ideas brought forth by this committee, I also think that censorship should come from society, not Congress.
If Congress wants something to focus on, it might be better for them to look at the actual root of the problem, not the way it is being expressed.
Violence, poverty, profanity – all the societal problems for which lawmakers wanted to examine rap lyrics – come from the living conditions of many of the people in the United States.
The government has a long way to go before it can change America, and it needs to start with the real problems, not the expression of the people’s problems.
If we have lapsed into a state that no longer considers certain lyrics vulgar, then it is not the government’s business to step in and say that artists can no longer make that sort of music.
The recording industry is self-correcting. Why would it make an album full of music that will not sell?
It already has a rating system for music with mature content. If you look underage, stores might card you for trying to buy some music. By having a rating system already in place, it is impossible not to know what you are buying.
If parents are not paying attention to what their children listen to, it is not the artists’ faults and it is not the government’s job to fix it. Parents need to keep their children from being overtly exposed to lyrics and media that they find inappropriate.
Of course, you cannot stop the children from becoming exposed at all. Older brothers and sisters may still expose inappropriate music to children.
The music people listen to is a personal choice. It should not be mandated or controlled by a select group of people.
Music may have an impact on society. I am not going to get into that fight. I do know that society has an impact on what makes mainstream.
Say what you will about any music, be it country, jazz, pop or even – lawmakers forbid – rap, but it does not change our right to express ourselves in whatever way we see fit.
We can change our society, but if we do, it will not be because Congress tells us to. For our lawmakers to earn their keep, they need to focus on the real problems.