Freedom of Tweet

Last week, 18-year-old high school senior Emma Sullivan got in Big Trouble after tweeting that she had "made mean comments at" conservative Republican Governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback, who was addressing a Youth in Government program, and told him that he "sucked." Sullivan actually had not done those things; her tweet was a joke to her then-65 followers, comprised of her friends. But Brownback's office, who fiercely monitors social media sites to document (and apparently whine about) criticism of the governor, ratted on Sullivan, whose principal ordered her to send Brownback a letter of apology. Sullivan refused, saying "she isn't sorry and doesn't think such a letter would be sincere."

Sullivan received a scolding at school and was ordered to send Brownback an apology letter. She said Prinicipal Karl R. Krawitz even suggested talking points for the letter she was supposed to turn in Monday.

...She said she thinks the tweet has helped "open up dialogue" about free speech in social media..

"I would do it again," she said.

...Sullivan said she disagrees with Brownback politically, particularly his decision to veto the Kansas Arts Commission's entire budget, making Kansas the only state in the nation to eliminate arts funding. Brownback has argued arts programs can flourish with private dollars and that state funds should go to core government functions, such as education and social services.

"I think it would be interesting to have a dialogue with him," she said. "I don't know if he would do it or not though. And I don't know that he would listen to what I have to say."

Sherriene Jones-Sontag, the governor's spokeswoman, told The Star previously that Sullivan's message wasn't respectful and that it takes mutual respect to "really have a constructive dialogue." Brownback's office didn't return calls or emails Sunday from the AP.

This is a man who ran for president of the United States, and we're meant to believe that he can't have a dialogue with a teenage girl who criticizes him with indelicate language, because it offends his delicate sensibilities? Yikes.

Again I will note with amusement how it is progressives—and feminist ladies in particular—who are constantly cast as "oversensitive," but I have engaged in dialogue on many occasions with people who have said much worse to me than that I "suck." And I am not a public official whose paycheck is drawn from a government which ostensibly guarantees the right to freedom of speech.

Sullivan's mother, Julie, said she isn't angry with her daughter, even though she thinks she "could have chosen different words."

"She wasn't speaking to the 3,000 followers she has now," Julie Sullivan said. "She was talking to 65 friends. And also it's the speech they use today. It's more attention grabbing. I raised my kids to be independent, to be strong, to be free thinkers. If she wants to tweet her opinion about Gov. Brownback, I say for her to go for it and I stand totally behind her."

Rock on, Mama Julie.

After Brownback and his staff tried to bully Emma Sullivan into silence and capitulation, and she and her mother were having none of it, guess what happened?

Brownback did announce this afternoon: "My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize."

Still no apology for using taxpayer dollars to monitor Twitter for any hint of criticism of the governor in direct contravention of free speech laws, though. Huh.