Editorial : Censorship by Another Name
It will always amaze me to hear of someone who is willing to give up
their rights in order to make sure that I don't have those
rights. Because the idea that I am free to do something they
don't want me to do is so repulsive, so vile to them, that they would
rather give up their own right than have me exercise mine fully.
This is what I find to be happening with our freedom of speech.
The freedom of speech is the most important freedom we have. It
gives us a way to voice ourselves against injustice, and to praise
fairness. One might say that it is the keystone to every other
right we have in this country. The right to vote is an extension
of our freedom of speech. One might even argue that the right to
bear arms is also an extension of this freedom. Whatever your
personal stance on any and all of the issues that we face, the one
thing we should be able to agree on is that any abridgment of our
freedom of speech is detrimental to all of us. Nevertheless,
there are those who actively seek to abridge this core freedom.
What it comes down to is regulating thoughts. Someone who wishes
to curtail the freedom of speech is simply looking for a way to
regulate the thoughts of the American public. By defining what
can and can't be said the debate is skewed to favor one side over
another, and there is no debate.
The government will always want to regulate the freedom of speech, and
often times government officials will say that this freedom does not
allow for someone to yell fire in a crowded room. While I'm not
saying that one should do that, the regulation of any speech should
stop just short of endangerment. Even then there is a
problem, because any and all situations are completely arbitrary.
Yelling fire at a party might be considered a funny joke at say a party
attended by firefighters.
What it comes down to is this. Any mollification of our freedom
to speak our mind turns us down a dangerous road towards
censorship. Someone will inevitably be offended by what we have
to say, and will call for censorship of our speech. The answer to
these calls for censorship isn't to put limits on what we say; it is to
expand these freedoms to their maximum point.
The freedom of speech must be expanded whenever possible, because all
freedoms stem from the right to think one's own thoughts. Those
who would curtail a person's right to think are very dangerous
individuals. I consider those who would act to curtail my freedom
of speech to be cowards. They cower to debate in an open forum of
ideas. They are the types that wish to tell you what you should
do, while not following their own advice. They are hypocrites who
will send troops to fight a war, but lie to protect their true
motives. They are quite simply inhuman, and not interested in
seeing humanity reach a higher plane of existence. A plane where
the debates go on, but are not fought over with guns or bombs, but with
ideas, and words only. They're afraid that their ideas, and their
words, will not withstand the openness of freedom.
