Oh, Yeah, We Have A Free Speech Problem

Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous - not just to some people in some circumstances - but to everyone all the time. --Thomas J. Watson

Free speech shouldn't be rocket science. Either we have it or we don't. But it's possible to complicate anything when politicians become involved. As we know only too well.

Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times recently remarked about the trouble he sees for us if we continue down the slippery slope that Great Britain is encountering in an effort to amend free speech:

"...The cautions for us are clear enough. Setting limits on free speech -- whether by the "speech codes" on college campuses or attempted intimidation of everyone else by the presumed elites -- is political correctness run amok. Free speech, after all, is like virginity: either you have it or you don't. Our First Amendment, unique in the world, does not guarantee speech in good taste, or speech that is responsible or reasonable. It guarantees only that speech shall be free. Our own government is no less subject to temptations to nibble at this guarantee...." Read entire article here.

Well, we've historically amended rights to speech if those words would incite insurrection during a time of war--on a temporary basis.

Worse because it's out of our control and permanent, somehow when we weren't looking, somebody's invoked arbitrary political correctness rules which now change the meaning of our simplest terms. Today black is white and white can be black--based on an injured party's interpretation. Or an activist judge's.

We've done this by limiting Christmas holiday references to God and Christianity while forcing recognition of other religions' holidays into our citizens' everyday lives--in the interest equality.

Today we are supposed to act artificially unoffended by the sight of the F-word emblazoned in block letters on a teen's t-shirt as he passes us on the street--because he relishes his freedom to shock those he passes. Yet, it's not reciprocal. Our freedom to object to certain words and phrases (Fire! in a public theater, F*** on a public street in full view of the young, the elderly, and the more civilized among us) is ignored. Further, our traditions of public prayer and pledging allegiance to our country are under fire. We're waiting to see if judges will force us to take our reference to God out of our Pledge.

In fact, we've eschewed the traditional handbooks for courtesy and manners as having no relevence in today's world. Yet, we've allowed decency rules to be replaced with an arbitrary group of unwritten, constantly changing rules that only one segment of the population (less than half of us) controls. They feel they have a divine imperative to define for us what and who should be offended by our American traditions. (Hmmm...divine right? How interesting.) As if somehow feeling "offended" by the actions of another constitutes an illegal or immoral act that is worthy of curtailing free speech. I must say that just because you can't be jailed for using shocking and offensive language doesn't mean that you have to use it. I wish some of us would wrap our brains around this idea.

We'd better get ourselves back to basics--back to living by the documents of our founding fathers; re-commiting to following our Constitution, not re-interpreting it. Uniform standards like right and wrong, laws, or rules of any kind seem to be tools of the enemy to some, but rather are the actual basis of equality in a free society.

As a little icing on our free speech cake, how hard could it be to throw in a little consideration of others instead of constant confrontation? The place where we're headed if we don't is a chaotic society where known standards of behavioral expectations no longer exist. A fluctuating legal free-for-all.

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