As I check out Tweats about South by SouthWest (SXSW) and hear about NPR broadcasting REM at SXSW, I wish even more that I could be there. Perhaps participating online is the best that I can do.

Yet yesterday, I stumbled across a comment about how SXSW started back in 1987 as a battle of the bands. Hmm, that is not the only thing that has cross my attention recently that started as a battle of the bands. Things clicked, gears whirred. The old phrase, “If Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed” came to mind.

Years ago, when I first heard that phrase, it seemed like a good way to make a mountain come to Mohammed was to first, return the mountain to its shape as a molehill, which many mountains are made out of, then transport the molehill and make a mountain out of it again.

So, the mountain of Freedom of Expression, which was made out of the molehill about when and where a high school battle of the bands could take place might be just the way to bring the mountain to Mohammed.

Freedom of Expression Festival 2009, FreeExFest, North by Northeast, whatever you want to call it. What if we were to take the Lewis S Mills Jamfest that was the starting point for the Avery Doninger case, combine it with Poets and Writers for Avery in Litchfield, the State of Student Free Speech symposium at Quinnipiac, and perhaps add in some additional fine arts, film, or other additions?

We could have our own festival celebrating the Freedom of Expression, right here in The Constitution State. You wanna help?