As the first few months of 2020 have shown, America is coming undone at the seams as the very document upon which this country was founded is getting shredded to suit the needs and whims of the current administration. Something that becomes more painful as we approach an election under a self-declared "Law-and-order" president who wants to bring back the Wild West of 1950's television.
Here is the matter in a nutshell: Protesters must be freely granted the time and space to have their voices heard.
The First Amendment protects both the speech we agree with and that with which we disagree.
First Amendment protections of free speech are broad.
The First Amendment does not merely protect the speech of people we agree with or who say reasonable things. In fact, if all speech is not free then there is no free speech. The First Amendment to the Constitution provides:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
In the 45 words that begin the Bill of Rights, five American freedoms are guaranteed. Among them is the freedom of speech.
No American right is more fundamental than the freedom of speech.
As Americans we should never be afraid to speak our minds.
The First Amendment applies to everyone - liberals, conservatives, libertarians, activists, protesters, newcomer, native born and people with whom we disagree. That is one of the beauties of social media like Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Tik-Tok and Facebook. They are forums for free speech, even though there are some trying to remove those freedoms because they disagree with someone else's viewpoint or politics, so we block them, lash out at them, report them and hope they are permanently forced off the World Wide Web by the "political censors" who have become the virtual police force of the Internet.
In recent weeks, we have seen the rights inherent in the First Amendment being trampled. Whether it is speech, peaceful assembly, religion, or even the press, the Constitution is being shredded all around us.
A few weeks ago, by accident, I attended a rally for Black Lives Matter protesters on the Civic Plaza in Denver just steps from Colorado's majestic gold-domed Capitol building while a storm was brewing all around me, figuratively (with protesters shouting) and literally (as a thunderstorm threatened rain). It was, however, mainly peaceful and mainly attended by people of every nationality and skin color. United under the protections of the First Amendment fighting for equal justice under the law, as the nearby Colorado Supreme Court Building proudly exclaims on its marble façade.
In New York Times vs. Sullivan, the Supreme Court declared, "We consider this case against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide open and that it may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials."
Speech does not have to be kind, tolerable or intelligent to be protected by the First Amendment.
There is no general hate speech exception to the First Amendment.
Hate speech is not illegal or unconstitutional, unless there is a specific threat of terrorism or violence. In those cases, it is not the hate speech that becomes illegal, it is the threat contained in the speech.
What has been called the "fighting words" exception to the First Amendment, based on case law, might apply if an angry person in a crowd used racial slurs to threaten someone in a way that could erupt into violence, but if those exact same words appear on a sign during a protest, it would not rise to the level of illegality.
The First Amendment protects freedom.
Our constitutionally protected freedoms are inextricably tied together and include:
- Freedom of religion (Not freedom from religion as some would suppose).
- Freedom of speech (Not the inability to let your voice be heard, as governments assume, as they call in enforcement in the midst of it all).
- Freedom of the press (Not suppression by those who want to throttle reporters and threaten them with prison for doing their job - take the case of CNN reporters being arrested for covering the protests or being unfairly questioned by the president during a press conference at the White House because of the color of their skin).
- Freedom to assemble (Without being tear gassed, pummeled by rubber bullets, arrested or beaten) regardless of the cause or those involved, as long as it remains peaceful.
- Freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances, which includes the right to protest and demand change. It is the only way anything has ever been done in this country when its citizens are faced with a government that is out of control. In his First Inaugural Speech, Abraham Lincoln said, "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
Many of our fathers, mothers, sons, daughters and loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice in giving their lives for the freedoms we hold dear as citizens of the United States of America.
They fought for our rights of free speech even if that includes things we find objectionable, distasteful, hateful, irritating or just completely disgusting.
The kinds of broad freedoms we are talking about are patently American freedoms and distinguish us from nations less free.
Communities all across the nation are hearing people speaking out and sometimes acting out, regarding racism, political ideologies and otherwise exercising their First Amendment rights.
Violence, vandalism and looting are all wrong and crimes not so much against the government, but against the very communities and small business owners who are just trying to make a living there and, in these hard times, merely trying to stay afloat when faced with an unknown economic future. Rather than hurting others in those ways, protesters should strongly voice their pain, their frustrations and their solutions to the systemic problems they hope to overcome.
No one should silence them, especially the President of the United States, who has taken an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States, which includes the First Amendment that guarantees us these rights.
They deserve to be heard, and nothing could be more American than giving them the time and the space to be heard, whether or not reform is the ultimate outcome (Although major overhauls are taking place as I write this in the comfort of my kitchen).
When public speech is restricted, it is no longer free speech - and where there is no free speech and no platform on which to exercise that free speech or a press to publicize it there is no real freedom. And that is no longer a country in which I wish to live.
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