Oct. 9th, 2001

johnstonmr: (Default)
"Freedom of Speech" is a phrase thrown around a lot today, so much so that I think most people have lost sight of what it was originally intended to be. The Supreme Court has time and again expanded the first amendment to protect all sorts of nonsense, both good and bad, but at it's core, the supreme right of all Americans is to criticize their country without fear of censure.

Remember, the colonists were coming from a place where to criticize their leaders was pretty much an automatic death sentence. So when they founded the United States of America, they built into the Bill of Rights one fundamental rule -- you can criticize the government. You can disagree with your leaders, and publically say so, and the government won't crack down on you.

Now, sure, there are times in our history when the US has forgotten this rule for a time, but it's one of the few constants in our society. Do you realise what freedom it is for Jay Leno, or Bill Maher, or any other of the late-night hosts, to be able to make fun of our President and not be shot? There are few such countries in the world, even today. Try making fun of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Try criticizing the leadership of Singapore, or Thailand, or Pakistan. Go ahead. Try it.

So why is it, that so many Americans want to forget this concept, and ridicule those of us who choose to partake of this right? Sure, they have the right to disagree, but why do they automatically jump to the "Love it or leave it" idiocy? If I love my country -- and I do, even though I also love others -- wouldn't it be wiser for me to try to help fix my country's problems instead of just leaving?

America's biggest problem, I think, is that her people have created for themselves an ego to match her wealth. And we all know what that leads to.

Sure, there may come a time at which I decide America is no longer my home, but we haven't reached it yet. I hope we never do, and so I'll teach others, and hope they will at least agree to disagree with me with respect and maturity instead of jejune responses designed to anger me.
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