Wrong, folks. Making any group shut up is about the worst thing we could do. It would defile one of the most important precepts on which this country was built. It would violate our constitutional right to free speech. For you see, the right to free speech is not just for you and me....it's for everyone in this country. It's just as much for that kookie guy in the loin cloth and scraggly beard, standing on a bench in the park screaming something about Regis Philbin being the anti Christ as it is for the Professor at that prestigious Ivy League university giving his views about Alan Greenspan's economic policy. In fact, it's more for the guy in the loin cloth than for the college Professor, as the right to free speech was developed more to protect the rights of the minority than the majority.
There are people who stand up and say or write things I think are so outlandish that I'm fighting mad as soon as I hear them. How dare they spout that kind of drivel in our society. Can't they see how wrong they are? How can they ignore facts as plain as the nose on your face? Well, you get the point. Any of you who've read some of my past articles know that I have opinions. Oh boy, do I have opinions. If opinions were money, I'd be Bill Gates. I've taken on the religious right, pro sport team owners, cigarette manufactures, hunters, rude people and many more. You name it and I've either taken them on, or will take them to task in the future.
I'm a slow learner because as a young man I believed if you didn't think the way I did, you were so terribly wrong that you had no right to speak. However, as I get older and begin to realize the bigger picture, I see how false that belief is. As I stated in a previous article, I don't like Pat Robertson, what he stands for or the way he parts his hair. I don't like his dog (OK, I love animals and I'd probably like his dog), I don't like anything about him and everything he says rubs me the wrong way. But you can bet on this. I wouldn't want anyone to tell him he doesn't have the right to say whatever he wants nor would I want anyone to try to stop him from saying it. The same goes for the white power crowd. I detest their bigotry, their intolerance and those stupid white sheets some of them wear. I'm offended by every word that comes out of their mouths. But I hold dearly to the fact that, as much as I may not like it, they have every right to say those words in public or to print them or to splash them all over the Internet. For if they haven't the right to say those words, no matter how repugnant they may be to most of us, then each of us has lost some of our rights to our own free speech.
We've all seen examples on television where factions in the audience try to shout down the speaker because they are so opposed to what they think he or she is going to say. This is as stupid as it is wrong. If you don't want to hear what someone has to say, don't go to their speeches, don't listen to them on the radio, don't watch them on television, and don't read what they say in print. Voice your own opinion, opposing theirs, but never forget that they have just as much right to their opinion as you have to yours.
Always remember how precious the right of free speech is and how terrible it would be to censor that right for any group or individual. We must protect the rights of the people who say what we hate to hear, for only by protecting their rights, can we protect our own. Letting others have their say, even when it offends us terribly, is one of the costs of living in a free society. I'm willing to pay that cost and that's why I oppose censorship at any level.
There's an old parable, that sums up exactly what I mean. "They came for the Jews, but I didn't speak up, for I was not a Jew. Next, they came for the blacks, but I didn't speak up, for I was not black. Then they came for the gays, but I didn't speak up, for I was not gay. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me."
Resist censorship in any form because if you don't, one day they might be coming for you!!
©2000 by Ken Kreps. This article may not be re-published in electronic or print media without the express written permission of the author. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ken Kreps lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife. He has written a number of published articles, essays and short stories, as well as numerous consumer and business pieces. Ken has also written scripts for Imagination Theater, an award winning audio drama series heard on over 150 commercial radio stations across the nation.
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