Counting Our Blessings

This week, the Pakistani government issued letters to all domestic cell phone companies stating that it would start blocking any text messages with "obscene" words. The specific words would be under the discretion of the telecommunication authority, but a list of about 1500 English and Urdu words were additionally listed. Among these banned words (which were mostly sexually explicit terms) were "Jesus Christ", "tampon" and "headlights". Many feel like it must violate some law, but in fact, it is legal under the 1996 act which blocks people from sending data through the telecommunications system that is "false, fabricated or obscene". The law also says that the government has the authority to ban all free speech "in the interest of the glory of Islam".

When I read this story, I felt so grateful to be living in this country. Not only are we well protected from foreign threats, but we have freedom of speech and religion. Our government may be large enough to regulate much of our daily lives, but we the people still have more than enough freedoms to live comfortably.

I feel like this story is published at such an ironic time. In class, we are learning about how our government has limited our liberties in the past and still does to this day. After reading this article, it made me realize that we complain too much. Obviously, our society can improve in so many different ways: socially, economically, morally, etc. On the other hand, we need to be grateful for living in a nation that still values basic human rights such as freedom of speech, religion, the right to a trial and countless others that we as Americans take for granted everyday. It is no surprise that millions upon millions of immigrants have moved into this country throughout its existence to seek refuge from their hostile homelands, my parents included. Even today, we are still the envy of much of the world. And with Thanksgiving right around the corner, I hope that everyone who lives in this country, legally or illegally, will count their blessings.