When I was in graduate school, I was given the topic, "Freedom of Speech" for one of my papers. Wow! Was that ever an eye-opener! But, I did end up a card carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as a result.
Last night's shooting at an event in Texas got me thinking again about the subject. One of my Facebook friends brought up the great speech from The American President. Do you remember? Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zemrWBIc_hE "We have serious problems to solve and we need serious people to solve them"
Regarding free speech, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112346/quotes
The Texas event was a Pam Geller sponsored event offering a $10K prize for best cartoon including the Prophet Mohammed. It was billed as a 'Free Speech" event. One wonders if they would have felt the same way if an atheist group had sponsored an event offering cash prizes for cartoons that presented the Christian religion in unfavorable ways? Remember the controversy over the artist who had the Crucifix submerged in a bottle of urine? Seems the Christian community didn't care much for Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ". So much for "Free Speech" when it conflicts with YOUR beliefs. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/18/andres-serrano-piss-christ-destroyed-christian-protesters
Yet, there are limits to Freedom of Speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment to our Constitution.
The US Supreme Court has established those limits. In a recent article in The Atlantic, Kent Greenfield takes exception to the idea that free speech should rarely be restricted. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/the-limits-of-free-speech/387718/ This was in reference to the University of Oklahoma frat boys chant that gained so much media attention in March of this year. Greenfield holds that it is entirely reasonable to restrict some forms of speech.
So, where do you stand on the issue? If you want to get your ACLU card, please go to this link and apply: https://www.aclu.org/
This was a very good article on the scope and range of what Free Speech entails! Often the Court of Public Opinion will negate the rights of an individual to express himself freely without recrimination, which only goes to prove that the limits of free speech are ever evolving!
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