The Up North Journal Team has launched their new website and they invite you to stop by and check out the new digs! You can find it at the same ‘ol place: www.upnorthjournal.com you will find a new interactive video panel that will play their most current video and will eventually have the most current episode of their upcoming new video show. You will also be able to click the link to take you to the archive page of all their videos. Not only does it have the video player but it also offers an audio panel that has the most current episode of their podcast with a scrolling banner with an outline of the current show. The link below the player also takes you to an archive page of past episodes for download or playing right from the site.

     The site is not 100% completed but the important items are there, so keep looking for further updates to the site and bios on the prostaff pages. When your finished taking the tour, be sure to drop them an email and let them know what you think about the new digs!

     Apparently that isn’t the case, at least in Connecticut!  Untrue you say, this can’t be, this is America! Sad and alarmingly so I’m afraid to say the day has come when you are no longer allowed to speak your beliefs because someone with the authority to control what happens to you doesn’t like what you stand for.  The college campus should be and always has been a place for freedom of expression, a place to find ones calling in life, and a place to exchange ideas and beliefs.  This is the one place that the first amendment is strongly held and exercised.  Professors encourage debate and the broadening of thought and discussion, or at least that is what we are taught to believe.

     My friends the winds of change that were promised in the recent election are blowing and it isn’t a gentle breeze that warms the soul, it is a cold reality that should chill us to the bone!  This week in The Recorder Online a Central Connecticut State University newspaper a story ran about an incident that happened last October.  First off why is this just now being reported?  This in and of itself smells of censorship! Was the University trying to hide this, sounds like it to me!

     Last fall semester student John Wahlberg was asked to present an oral presentation for his Communications 140 class with a topic that had to do with a relevant issue in the media. The topic he chose to present to the class and Professor Paula Anderson was school violence, due to the recent Virginia Tech shooting the previous year.

     One of the contentions that Wahlberg made was that if students were allowed to carry concealed firearms on a university campus the outcome of the Virginia Tech shootings could have been much different.  The shooter would have been stopped much earlier in his quest.  Wahlberg also discussed the problems with gun free zones on campuses.  That evening after he gave his oral presentation to the class he was requested to come to the local campus police station.  He was then read to by the police about the list of specific guns he owns! He was also asked where he kept these guns!  The campus police told him the reason they were questioning him was that his professor (Paula Anderson, Lecturer: andersonpau@ccsu.edu ) complained that his presentation made other students “scared and uncomfortable”.  You have to be kidding me, right?

     In a statement to the newspaper she wrote: “it is my responsibility as a teacher to protect the well being of our students, and the campus community at all times”, “As such, when deemed necessary because of any perceived risks, I seek guidance and consultation from the Chair of my Department the Dean and any relevant University officials”  Here are a few officials that you might want to consult with on this matter: Patricia Lane, Asst. Director of University Relations lanep@ccsu.edu, Mark Mclaughlin Associate Vice President mclaughlinm@ccsu.edu, President of the University John W. Miller universitypresident@ccsu.edu.  You might ask them how do they justify these actions when as a university they support a pistol and rifle club?
     There are so many things wrong with this situation that I don’t even know where to begin.  So lets start with why was this student questioned in the first place.  He didn’t threaten anyone in the class, no one else complained to the campus police.  All they have is a professor who claims that students were “uncomfortable and scared”.  With only this information that gives the police the right to interrogate a student?  Why were they questioning him about his firearms?  Where did they get a list of firearms owned?  This is a HUGE concern for all gun owners, if they have a list of long guns, where did they get this?  During a firearms background check to the best of my knowledge those records are only kept for three days.  The only reason I could see for them having his firearm records is if he had hand guns that were registered.  I smell a lawsuit, are you listening NRA? With only a person saying they were uncomfortable and scared, the police should have showed the professor the door.  Since when do police question students for others being uncomfortable about a debate?  Had that been me I would have walked right back out the door I came in.  If they wanted to question me I would have had an attorney present.  I do think that there will be a few attorneys involved before all of this is over.

     The next issue to cover is the universiy’s professor who started this mess in the first place.  Since when did discussing a media relevant topic get you hauled into the police station?  This student broke no laws, he was expressing his belief against gun free zones and what the outcome might have been if concealed carry permits were allowed on campuses.  Isn’t the campuses of universities supposed to foster the learning and ideas that later form this country?  I guess not if the professor you have doesn’t believe in the first amendment!  I guess we are teaching the youth of today to follow not lead!  We are supposed to be the little “sheople” that follow our shepherds to slaughter!  Speak out against the king and the gestapo will question your every move!  This professor reacted on ignorance and unwarranted fear!  For heavens sake, this was a communication class!  If we cannot freely discuss and debate in a communication class then it should be called a brainwashing class.  The recent wave of attitudes preaching tolerance has done nothing more than feed into a society of intolerance towards the conservative thinking people in this country.

     The fostering of ideas and expression of those ideas is ok as long as the administration of said institution agrees with your stance.  If not watch out.  The anti gun thoughts, policy, and actions of these great United States of America are quickly becoming the norm now.  The second amendment will be squashed by the restriction of our first amendment if we do not act soon!  These freedom thieves must be made aware that we will no longer tolerate the oppression of our freedoms!  We must use whatever LEGAL means necessary to fight off injustices and bigotry against gunowners and conservative points of view!  May GOD Bless America!  Or is it not P.C. to say that either? .

     Friday they officially launched their website and are beginning to draft the marching orders for the group of legal law abiding gun owners to peaceably assemble at the Capitol of the United States of America!  Visit the new website, be sure to take the time to register and lend your support!