The following editorial stems from the recent case of shock jock Don Imus, who was fired for using an inappropriate racial term on-air. This case once again brought up the debate over the content of rap music.

Censoring rap music is absurd. When I was a child, I was not allowed to listen to rap music. My mother always said that it was bad for young children to listen to, and she didn’t want her child hearing that kind of trash talk.

When I turned 9, I started listening to rap music more and more. My parents didn’t really care too much about it because values had changed, and they knew it wouldn’t do any good to say anything. I would hear it anyway.

By the time I was 13, I was a big rap fan. It was all that I would listen to. Rap music really had no effect on the way I talked or acted. Music does not affect the way people act — people affect each other.

Why is it, then, that every time something happens, people blame music, movies or video games? I think it’s a way for people to reject responsibility for their actions.

The language in rap music is not that bad. It uses words that people use everyday. Rap music is only music. If someone were to say that country music was too emotional and made people suicidal, would it be banned or would the fact that it is “white” music keep it on the shelves?

When it comes down to it, people like their own kind of music. Let them listen to it.