$500 - Best Tweet About the College that Censored Firefly

Description

In fall 2011, a theater professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout was threatened with punishment after posting a flyer with a quote from the short-lived yet much beloved science fiction television show Firefly outside his office door. For more about the case, visit http://thefire.org/case/874 .

My organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), has produced this new video highlighting the absurdity of the case. We are offering a total of $500 awards for the best tweets promoting the video.

[youtube] http://youtu.be/4iAOtkpFGhc [/youtube]

Here's how to participate:

Watch the video above.
Go to "My Entry" tab and write the best tweet to promote the video to your followers with a link to it. (If you are not connected with Twitter on Prizes, you'll be prompt to connect after submitting your tweet).

The tweet should communicate these values: freedom of speech, liberty, anti-censorship, and appreciation of sci-fi show Firefly. We recommend submissions use the hashtag #Firefly. Tweets must include this link to the video http://bit.ly/tGzd0o .

FIRE will then choose the top 5-10 tweets by marking them as favorites. While the judging process will be entirely subjective, the FIRE judges will consider factors like cleverness, pithiness, catchiness, and the tweet's ability to appeal to the fans of the show Firefly, along with how many followers the tweet reached and how often it was re-tweeted.

Once we have decided on the final tweets, we will let the contest run for another week and select winners based on their votes.

http://bit.ly/tHisIsStUpId #advertising Wow, is this pre-release PR for some deluxe boxed BluRay set or something? Now being a couch potato watching some dorky show can feel like a #FundamentalStand for #HumanRights

A few words about the story behind my entry, because a few sentences are needed to make you understand... It was 1988 and I was in second primary school grade. At the end of the second semester, there was a celebration where all kids would sing and say poetry about our great leader, Ceausescu. Obviously, there was no questioning on why or allowing kids to choose. My teacher sends me and a classmate to a certain class, where we get our poetry parts to learn and then have to go from time to time to repeat & such. I don't care about that damn poetry, but I keep going to those clases. A few days before the event, I still didn't care to learn the poetry part I had, but I weren't called in front of the class to recite, either. So when it's the last repetition before the show, the young teacher in charge of the event asks the class, full of 2nd grade kids, in a still communist Romania (about the same period, an internal security guy was stalking my mother, trying to get her to confess against people employed in her factory - in the end, she always gave him crap, he stopped asking questions at a certain point, but he interviewed her quite a few times), if anyone doesn't WANT to come at the show. I am the only one to rise, I say "Me" and the says "Fine, you may go." and that's all - more freedom than you got in today's USA! P.S. I wasn't questioned about this, except my teacher who sent me to that show, who was very angry, but I couldn't care less about her opinion. My parents weren't questioned about this story either.

"The contest creator, TheFire, has eliminated your entry in "Best Tweet About the College that Censored Firefly". You are encouraged to revise and resubmit it before the contest ends." Does this mean I didn't comply with the rules or something? or just that he doesn't think it's a winner?

ps: Mine had 10 votes and a direct and applicable quote from Firefly: CALLING ALL BROWNCOATS: "May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one." Rally here: zxpo.com/1 #FIREFLY

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View all 22 comments ⋅ View creator's comments only

Robert King

132 days ago

Nancy Scott ⋅ Oregon

			Please explain he rationale of the school banning Firefly.  It is alot less offensive than what we see on media.

130 days ago

Robin Arthur Thurman

			Why isn't my tweet loading?

120 days ago

Karan Bhatia ⋅ Rank #1 in 1DEAS @Prizes.

			Could you please rate a few entries you like

118 days ago

KodrutZ ⋅ Iasi, Romania

111 days ago

Nick Rosenthal

106 days ago

Michael Cummings

			How can we learn why we were eliminated?

			Couldn't care less about being eliminated. Didn't enter this for the money, after all. It would have been nice to give some reasons for eliminating entries, anyway...

105 days ago

Nick Hughes ⋅ London, Barbados, Madrid

			o,the irony,my words censored by the wineging anti censorship brigade .

103 days ago

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