PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
EDITORIAL: Freedom of speech with no 'buts' attached :: 05/16/2015
We take our freedom of speech straight up — no mixers; no chasers; not shaken; not stirred.
We forget, in our world where everything is “the biggest,” ‘’the best,” ‘’the greatest ever” that not every strong statement is mere hyperbole to be ignored.
Patrick Henry did not say, “Give me liberty or give me another beer.” The motto of New Hampshire is not “Live Free or Just Pretend.” And Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing a biography of Voltaire, did not summarize his views of freedom of speech by arguing, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend, whenever convenient, your right to say it.”
No. Henry demanded, “Give me liberty or give me death.” New Hampshire’s motto is “Live Free or Die.” And Voltaire’s biographer argued that he would defend, “to the death,” one’s right to say things with which he did not agree.
The possibility of death being the alternative to freedom has been very real. We tend to forget that in what is still, despite our problems, a relatively risk-free society.
And so we come to the issue of free speech as a drawing; particularly, a cartoon of Islam’s prophet Mohammed, and the violent response to it. The “Draw Mohammed” gathering in Garland, Texas, ended with two alleged ISIS-related terrorists dead at the hands of an armed security officer.
Free speech matters. Taking offense at that speech matters much less so. Despite those who would demand otherwise, there are no safe zones; there is no right not to be offended; there is nothing off-limits, except in narrowly defined circumstances.
Just from a quick perusal of my social media feeds one recent morning, I found, not only Fawstin’s work but two other examples of protected speech that will be found disagreeable by many.
Last weekend, Faithful Word Baptist Church Pastor Steven Anderson sermonized that God has ordered in the scriptures that gays should be killed, and that if humanity wants to have an “AIDS-free world by Christmas,” that’s what should be done.
In a video posted by Breitbart this week, a New Black Panther Leader — identified by The Blaze as possibly King Samir Shabazz — said that blacks will have to kill white babies “seconds” after they’re born, while suggesting bombing nurseries.
Objectionable? Certainly. Protected? Just as certainly.
But we don’t get to pick and choose as a matter of philosophical convenience. Virtually every utterance we make can be found offensive by someone, for some reason or for none whatsoever.
What our freedom of speech means is that we need not be concerned that government is going to punish us for hurting the feelings of others. It does not mean that others might not try to limit our rights by initiating force against us — up to and including killing us.
That’s why the First Amendment doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There is a Second Amendment, among others, that has something to say about the potential outcome of initiating force against another.
http://www.pottsmerc.com/opinion/20150516/editorial-freedom-of-speech-with-no-buts-attached
