Posted by
JayPeriod on Saturday, November 24, 2007 9:39:58 AM
There are many enumerated rights guaranteed in our Constitution. We have the right to free speech, the right to free religious practice, the right to be free from illegal search and seizure, and the right to equal protection. No where in this great document do we have the right to feel comfortable at all times.
Yet, in recent years, we see court cases ruled against any mentions of God in the public forum and speech codes being enforced on college campuses to ensure that those who are made uncomfortable by certain words or phrases are not forced to feel so. This is utterly absurd. In any society which values free speech, there are going to be those who are uncomfortable at some of the words spoken. That does not give those who are uncomfortable the right to suppress the freedoms of others.
In general, there are things I'd like not to have to listen to. I'd like not to be forced to hear foul language and racial epithets being shouted from passing cars at a stop light. I'd like not to hear people like Cindy Sheehan demean and slander our troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, in a free society, there are things we must endure.
By the same token, the gay community may not like to hear from evangelicals that their behavior is immoral and damaging, an atheist may not want to hear a valedictorian give credit for their success to God, and the Darwinist may not want to hear that there is evidence contrary to evolution, but these things are protected under the First Amendment. If we, as a nation, censor these forms of free speech, how can we survive. Free speech means not only speech that makes us feel comfortable, but that speech that makes us uncomfortable.
If we come to the point where we determine that the First Amendment does not protect all forms of speech, but only that which makes all feel comfortable, I fear that not much will be protected. For we can all find something that others say that makes us uncomfortable, or we do not want to hear, and make the claim that they should be silenced. How sad would that day be for our great nation?