Free Speech: If We Lose That, America Is Done

Recently, the comedian Jerry Seinfeld declared that he would no longer perform on college campuses, joining Chris Rock and several others in that sentiment. Seinfeld says that the atmosphere of political correctness makes it impossible for comics to play a college. He's right.

 

This is the United States of America. The very first amendment to the Constitution, the cornerstone of our society, is the right to free speech. That guarantee was meant specifically to protect unpopular, possibly offensive, speech. There is no inherent obligation for others to listen to that speech, but the right of the speaker to say it is inviolable.

 

Or it used to be.

 

Today, we have "free speech zones" on college campuses, meaning that if you want to say something that might offend someone else you must be in one of those zones when you say it or face disciplinary measures. It isn't just private colleges with "free speech zones." Public colleges have them, as well as colleges that take our tax dollars.

 

Private institutions can, and should, have their own rules. If they want to ban free speech, it's within their rights to do so. They will eventually pay the price when people stop using their services, buying their products, etc.

 

The fact is that colleges and universities are fast becoming the places where individual freedoms and critical thought go to die, which is diametrically opposite what they should be.

Any public institution, or an institution that takes public money, should be the staunchest DEFENDERS of free speech anywhere on campus.

 

You may ask why I single them out specifically. That's easy. Using the liberal thought process, which is so ridiculously simple that an underachieving 2nd grader can follow it.

If the government is the guarantor of the fallacious "separation of Church and State" in that prayer and religious symbolism should not and cannot be on or in public properties, i.e., schools, courthouses, and other government buildings, and that's in keeping with the religious freedom portion of the 1st Amendment, should it not also follow that the government is the guarantor of the free speech portion of the same amendment on public lands?

 

Why one and not the other?

 

If we lose the freedom of speech, this nation is gone, and gone forever. We must take a stand against the tyranny of political correctness.

 

The time is now. ~ Hunter