Free Speech – A Threatened Commodity….

“Free speech”, such a simple two word phrase.. What is it? Do we really have it? Can we keep it?

Does free speech mean anything exactly? The ability to offend anyone we please, any time we please? The opportunity to spread religious dogma to any and all that will listen? Do we have the ability to force others to listen despite their wishes? Do we have the “right” to do that? What is a “right”?

Let’s look at the last, first.

A “right” is something we feel entitled to (like the FSA – they have a perceived “right” to their free shit). We have a right to this or that, be it a land title, a copyright, a car we “own” or something called “free speech”. We own these things because a whole lot of men, women and children have died in the defense of or earning and keeping that “right”. A lot of the women and children were peripheral casualties thereof but the cost to them was the same as for the men and women who fought the wars and died in battle.

There is an old saw that says, “Freedom is not free” and that includes free speech. It must be defended or earned as the case may be and it is also very easily lost if taken for granted. (for those interested in trivia, it was coined by Colonel Walter Hitchcock (USAF Retired)).

Unfortunately, here in the “Land of the Free”, our Federal Government is dallying with the idea of limiting free speech in the interest of something called “International respect of religion” whatever in hell that means. How is it so dallying?

More