Jun
28
2006
Free Speech is precious and must be protected
Author: Rob NolanFree Speech is precious and must be protected
There have been several thing of late happening in our government relating to the tenet of free speech, from the New York Times bolding printing details of a questionable practice by our government, to our own Attorney General denouncing the First Amendment as a threat to national security. Well, in the latest election year circus the Senate tried to pass an amendment to the Constituion that would ban the burning or “desecration” of the US flag. There are many things I could say about this, but instead I’m going to reprint an email I recieved today from the @rassm mailing list. This says everything that needs to be said, I think:
Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself has said,
“This is my own, my native land?”
You folks from outside the USA please forgive me for going on a bit here.
In high school I cried, yeah really, cried, when I read “The Man Without A Country.” Might cry again, if I were to read it tonight. I love my tribe — my country — and its flag. I get choked up sometimes when I hear “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” possibly the most thrilling martial music ever written. Old Glory. The Stars and Stripes. I love it. Hope you love your country’s flag and what it represents too, whatever your native land might be.
I also love the first ten amendments to the US Constitution — our Bill of Rights. This was a brilliant and vital addition to the Constitution, spelling out essential limits to the powers of government, expressing in writing for all time basic freedoms for every citizen to enjoy without concern for interference. These freedoms include freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religious worship, and the right to bear arms, preventing unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and self-incrimination, and guaranteeing due process of law and a speedy public trial with an impartial jury. Wonderful stuff.
But did you notice I left one out? The first one? Freedom of speech?
That’s because I wanted to save it — to help me emphasize that our freedom of speech survived attack in the US Senate tonight by the narrowest of margins — one slim vote.
See, it’s an election year, and the wackos in the Republican Party are scared they’re about to lose their congressional majorities because of their incompetence. So they’re desperate to energize the ignorant masses who voted them into office, and what better way than to cast the Democrats as evil, unpatriotic flag burners? So they proposed a constitutional amendment to allow flag burning, or other flag desecration to be banned. It’s just a perfect political ploy, and it has worked oh so very well for them in the past. Appeal to ignorance. The cornerstone of the philosophy of the Republicans since the days of Richard Nixon.
The US Supreme Court knows better. In today’s Senate debate, proponents of the constitutional amendment denounced the Supreme Court for its 5-4 rulings in 1989 and 1990 that declared flag-burning a form of free speech protected by the Constitution. Well of course it’s a form of free speech. It’s exactly the sort of free speech that the Founding Fathers intended our Constitution to protect. They intended to permit unpopular expressions of political dissent. They knew the dangers of allowing the government to stifle political dissent. They carefully crafted a precious gift for us.
So you’d THINK conservative Republicans would be champions of preserving the Bill of Rights, and especially the right to free speech. But no, now now, not when their power is threatened. When in trouble, get emotional, appeal to ignorance. That’s the Grand Old Party today. And a few Democrats actually joined with them. Ignorance apparently does not respect party lines.
I gotta tell you though, I admire Mitch McConnell. He’s a conservative, yeah, conservative, reliably conservative, especially conservative, Conservative Republican, normally the sort of politico with whom I’d be proud to disagree. But on this subject at least, HE_GETS_IT. As the Washington Post said on its website this evening, “McConnell, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, is a strong supporter of First Amendment rights. In explaining his position, he wrote in a statement yesterday, “No act of speech is so obnoxious that it merits tampering with our First Amendment.” Doing so, he said, “could also set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the Bill of Rights.”
Bingo. Thank you Mr. Conservative Mitch McConnell. Thank you for protecting the US Constitution from silliness in an election year.
Still, I wonder if the state legislatures, in considering whether to ratify this proposed amendment, would have done the job that the Congress couldn’t bring itself to do — remind the citizenry of the lessons we all learned in high school civics class. Remind us of the brilliance of the Bill of Rights. Remind us that the government must not limit political speech, no matter how offensive that speech might be. That’s what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
End of rant. Mopping brow.
–
Bill Anderson
I am the Mighty Favog
posted by Rob Nolan at 2:44 AM 0 comments links to this post
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