Rou

I've yelled about this subject until I'm blue in the face. I've screamed so long and loud that I'm starting to hear the echoes of my words repeating time and time again.

The most important part of our democracy is encapsulated in the first amendment to the constitution. I honestly believe that. The second portion of that amendment in particular, derives the basic premise of democracy. I feel it’s more basic than the freedom of religion or the press. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say those rights are both derivative of the freedom of speech.

Our ability to stand up and speak our minds is the most basic concept in a republic, such as ours. We must be able to speak or we can not inform our leaders how we want them to run the country. We must speak at length about our religious, moral, political, and social values. In order to allow ourselves this right, we must allow everyone this most precious of rights. In order to speak about issues important to us, we must allow those that speak against us their right to speak, no matter how repugnant that speech may be.

That’s the problem with speech. Many people don’t seem to understand that speech is not just things we agree with. It must also be things we are repulsed by; things that cause us to stand up and take offense.

The shield of that freedom is wide. And we all stand behind it. There have been numerous attempts over the years to push people out. To say that certain things shouldn’t be said. They justify these claims by making claims against the speaker. By claiming the speech harms others. It hurts our children. It offends this or that minority. It’s treason to speak against the government. We don’t stand for that kind of talk. It's not American.

On top of that, we have tried to say that certain mediums do not apply as speech. Books. Photography. Movies. Music. Art. Clothing. Pornography. Games. Through the ages, one medium after another has come under fire.

It all seems to be a never ending quest to preserve some image of society as constant. To silence critics and radicals. To suppress ideas outside the mainstream. To brand groups as subversive. To protect society or our symbols. To isolate it from the changes in the world.

Our ability to speak our views is powerful. It’s not just my right to say this is my opinion. Or yours. We must stand up for our rights by allowing those we hate the most to have the right to speak their mind as well.

If we can’t do that; if we won’t do that, we’ve already given up our most precious possession.

To reject the word is to reject the human search. ~Max Lerner