I love freedom of speech. Often, in the middle of a debate over politics, I am reminded by my opponent of what a joy it is to live in this wonderful country where we get to enjoy the freedom of speech. "Isn't it nice that we have the freedom to disagree like this?" I am asked. This tends to make me wonder if we've forgotten what freedom of speech really is.
The other night I was listening to a comedy routine by Carlos Mencia. In it he highlights what seems to be the popular version of what freedom of speech really is all about. Here's a quote from that show:
I have freedom of speech. You think you have freedom of speech. Some of you don't get it, so let me make this very very remedial for you. This is my job. I work on this fucking stage. Sand nigger, nigger, cunt, fag, spick, kike, bitch, chink, weeble wobble, gook, and as you can see I didn't get fired. All you people who think you have freedom of speech, tell my jokes on Monday and see if you don't get sent to sensitivity training.
Mr. Mencia has a very sad idea of what freedom of speech is all about. The right to use racial slurs on a stage in front of thousands or even millions of fans might be nice, and it might even pay well, but freedom of speech is much much more than that. Let me make this very remedial and give you a real example of freedom of speech. This is an excerpt from a letter to the editor written by a fellow American criticizing our President and others:
"I am furious with the tragically misplaced priorities and criminal negligence of this government," it began. "The Katrina tragedy in the U.S. shows that the emperor has no clothes!" She mentioned that she was "a VA nurse" working with returning vets. "The public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder," she wrote, and she worried about the hundreds of thousands of additional cases that might result from Katrina and the Iraq War.
"Bush, Cheney, Chertoff, Brown, and Rice should be tried for criminal negligence," she wrote. "This country needs to get out of Iraq now and return to our original vision and priorities of caring for land and people and resources rather than killing for oil. ... We need to wake up and get real here, and act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.
Otherwise, many more of us will be facing living hell in these times."
Frequent readers of this blog may recognize the quote from an earlier piece Bruce did. But before we get to the story behind this quote, I'd like you to notice what a stark difference it is from the example given by Carlos Mencia. For many Americans, freedom of speech is just the ability to say any damn fool thing that comes to mind. But it has to be more than that; otherwise it wouldn't matter.
What makes this statement radically different from Mr. Mencia's is the fact that we have a normal citizen of this great republic voicing her criticism of the government. That's the freedom of speech that really matters, folks. You and I--in theory--have the right to speak out against government abuses.
The quote is a little more reveailing in another respect. Here we have a perfect example of what freedom of speech should be about, and guess what? The author of this letter was accused of sedition. Bruce first wrote about it here about a month ago, and Duane just recently mentioned it again here. But seeing how this is about one of the most important freedoms we have, I think it bears mentioning again. Click one of the above links to get caught up on the whole story of Laura Berg, the VA Nurse accused and investigated for sedition because of a simple opinion letter to a local paper.
This nation has never been very serious about protecting our freedom of speech. Just seven years after the First Ammendment had been added to the Constitution the Sedition Act of 1798 was passed. An article at Wikpedia has the following to say:
Under the Sedition Act, anyone "opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States" could be imprisoned for up to two years. It was also illegal to "write, print, utter, or publish" anything critical of the president or Congress (emphasis mine).
This particular act expired just a few years afterwards, but we've had various others. The Sedition Act that Mrs. Berg was accused of violating was passed during the First World War. The Sedition Act in turn was an ammendment to the Espionage Act . "The Espionage Act was used to imprison Americans who spoke out aginst the war (A People's History, by Howard Zinn pg 356). Over 900 Americans were arrested during the First World War for voicing opposition to that war. Here we are all these years later and we are still having to fight our government for our right to freedom of speech.
Look for some upcoming posts also dealing with freedom of speech. The picture is of Eugene Debs who was also a victim of the Espionage Act.
I love freedom of speech. Often, in the middle of a debate over politics, I am reminded by my opponent of what a joy it is to live in this wonderful country where we get to enjoy the freedom of speech. "Isn't it nice that we have the freedom to disagree like this?" I am asked. This tends to make me wonder if we've forgotten what freedom of speech really is.
prison Americans who spoke out aginst the war (A People's History, by Howard Zinn pg 356). Over 900 Americans were arrested during the First World War for voicing opposition to that war. Here we are all these years later and we are still having to fight our government for our right to freedom of speech.
