Public Forum Doctrine

Hello!

Tonight while studying for my midterm I realized that there is one topic I really wanted to discuss in my blogs but haven't had the chance to address, this topic is the public forum doctrine. When we first read about this in Sunstein's article I thought it was really interesting. The first thing that came to my mind was when my friends, they go to school at a small university in Connecticut, I took them into Chinatown for dinner and they were SHOCKED when they saw all the people walking around holding flyers and chanting religious bible verses. They said they had never seen anything like that before, they were confused about why they were allowed to stand outside the metro saying these things and I really didn't have an answer for them. However, after learning about the public forum doctrine I now realize why people are allowed to stand on the sidewalks of public places and share information with the people around them.
I think that free speech and the public forum doctrine are great inventions. I admit at times I get very frustrated with people on the streets trying to get me to take their packets of information or tell me about their organization. In the end I feel that it is important to listen to what others have to say. I am one of those people who only reads/hears what I want, if they are talking about something on the news that I am not interested in, I would probably turn it off. I think learning about personalization has helped me to realize how much I limit myself. I need to become more open to ideas and news, even if I do not find it interesting. I plan on studying abroad and I think that I need to stop limiting myself if I want to have a good experience abroad. Sunstein brings up many good points in his article about why we should stop personalizing our lives. The one that stuck out to me the most was that it will stop us from being connected to other people because if we feel we have nothing in common with them, we probably will not try to mingle with them. As a Media Studies major, I plan on getting into the Public Relations world and I think I need to become more open to ideas and stay exposed to a wide range of topics so that I am able to communicate with my co-workers and clients.

-Liz