Freedom of Speech

Free speech is a powerful right. It frightens people in power, it empowers people out of it. It is one of several that are integral to my country's history. As a blogger, it is the primary right. Having grown up in this country, I have always taken this right for granted. Even when I was told when to speak by my parents, even when I was told I did not have that right while I was in school. Even at those times, I still thought I had that right and thought nothing more about it.

I learned what it was like to not have it while in the Navy. First, because you really do not have that as an unfettered right while you are a member of the military. Your political activity is restricted and your ability to speak out is restricted. It isn't completely suppressed but it is severely restricted. Second, I visited a couple of countries where freedom of speech was not protected at all. I saw the reluctance in the people of those countries to speak about internal political matters or leaders.

There have been three recent examples of free speech in the news that caught my attention.

The first is the Beauty Queen incident. I don't watch beauty pageants. They bore me. And most people, even those who watch such fine entertainment as Judge Judy, Maury, and the E! cable channel, tend to ignore the telecasts. Less people probably know who the current Miss America is than know who the current vice-president is. This beauty contest was for the Miss USA title. An even lesser known pageant that is the precursor to the Miss Universe contest. Miss Universe? Are there entrants from Alpha Centauri? But I digress...

During this critically important pageant, one of the contestants was asked a controversial question. She was asked to give her opinion on the issue of gay marriage. Since then we have been subjected to regular reports about the trials and tribulations she has suffered as a result of her less than politically acceptable answer. Whether you favor gay marriage or not, what earthly importance is the question to the choice of who will win a beauty contest? Did anyone ever really care what the prom queen thought about world events? Of course not, nor did anyone care what the prom king thought either. Most of us weren't concerned about their brains.

The second example was at the White House Correspondents Dinner. This is an event where people make jokes about important and powerful people without fear of reprisal. Allegedly. In reality, we find there are limits about what can be said. Wanda Sykes may have exercised some poor taste in her diatribe about Rush Limbaugh. So we have been subjected to multiple stories about that incident that will probably die out before the Beauty Queen's. Oddly, Ms Sykes exercised her freedom of speech as she denounced Limbaugh's and called him a "traitor."

Finally, we come to the story of a former vice-president who is currently speaking his mind about current policies and fellow political party members. Now, various pols and talking heads are running about suggesting he should be quiet, that he shouldn't speak his mind.

I don't understand the fuss over any of these. I thought freedom of speech meant you could speak out about political matters. After all, the real purpose of that First Amendment was to protect political speech. It really wasn't about pornography or artistic expression. It was about the right to speak out about government policies and activities. The other things were "discovered" by the courts rather recently.

What I have observed over the years, however, is that most people do not really support free speech. Oh, they say they do. But what they really mean is they support speech they agree with and other speech that they don't care much about. But the ideas they oppose? Oh no, those are an abuse of the right. These people should lose their titles as Miss California, Wanda Sykes should be disavowed by the administration, Rush Limbaugh should be taken off the air, Dick Cheney should go to Wyoming and shut up.

What are their detractors so afraid of?