Freedom of Speech under attack

“I fear the newspapers more than a hundred thousand bayonets.” -Napoleon Bonaparte
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.”
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitation.
I remember one time I learned this first hand.
One time while I was a young boy I courageously disagreed with my dad and invoked the first amendment.
My father explained that in the United States we do have our first amendment rights; however in his household those rights could be suspended at anytime due to his fatherly authority, which he referred to as fatherism, it is kind of like communism except even more oppressive.
“In my house you do as I say and think as I tell you to think,” he would say.
My father wanted me to understand the difference between freedom and communism.
This was during the Reagan years and the Cold War was pretty hot. Communism was often discussed around the community and I remember even as a young boy wanting to know what communism was all about.
I remember my father taking time to explain the meaning of the first amendment and how and why it is important to this beautiful nation.
Freedom of speech is an essential ingredient to what makes this nation great. Freedom of speech can be found in early human rights documents, such as the British Magna Carta (1215) and The Declarations of the Rights of Man (1789), a key document of the French Revolution.
Being in the newspaper business, we provide an avenue for the community to express their views. We may not always agree with the views expressed, however, we celebrate the right of citizens to impart those views.
I know that sometimes we may wish we could quiet those who have differing views than we do, so we support the creation of laws that might take away those opposing views. However those same laws that would quiet those we oppose might someday be used on us to quiet the beliefs that we have.
With the recently passed Hate Crimes Bill we see a direct attack on our First Amendment rights. Now I am not for Hate, quite to the contrary, I think we should genuinely love one another, regardless of race, lifestyle, political party, income bracket, or religion.
The First Amendment was placed in our Bill of Rights because our Founding Fathers understood that the freedom of thought is the cornerstone of every other freedom.
The unconstitutional Hate Crimes Bill starts us down a road where freedom of speech is limited. This new law opens the door to suspects being questioned about their thoughts rather than their actions. Are we going to start interrogating people about what they are or were thinking?
If we are not careful this new law will eventually lead the way for the elimination of all of our other freedoms.
We need to let our elected officials know how we feel about the passage of the Hate Crime Bill. Call them, write them, or even better, visit their office.
The discussion of differing ideas is what makes our conversations interesting, our relationships unique, and the progress towards a better world successful. If we damper the fires of free expression we open the door to tyranny and oppression like communism or worse fatherism.
Brent Giles

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