Can anyone tell me why, when Danny Glover, Sean Penn or Tim Robbins criticizes the Bush administration’s policies it is free speech, but if anyone criticizes their opinions it’s an orchestrated suppression of free speech?

Just as I have the right to speak my mind, others have the right to disagree. In the case of these “stars” the repercussions may, and often are, substantial.

If they choose to express views contrary to their viewing public they risk chastisement from that public.

Doesn’t the public have the same right to freedom of expression?

Sean Penn is suing a producer for being removed from a project, supposedly because of negative public sentiment as a result of his stance on the war. Even if this is the case, is the producer wrong? The producer will lose money if the project fails because people do not wish to support Penn.

Since when does a business not have the right to do what is in its best financial interest?

I personally am fed up with these elites feeling entitled to free speech without the possibility of reproach. I am fed up with the fact that when they are criticized they blame the “vast right-wing conspiracy.”

The Dixie Chicks faced a backlash from their own audience, not from the government.

It is time for these people to realize that they have made the public their employer and, while no one may deny them the right of free speech, if you upset your boss, you may get fired.

Frank Phillips, Auburn