When I began following free speech controversies, I was a First Amendment absolutist. Now I’m something less comfortable. I still think free speech is a good idea, certainly better than alternatives I’ve come across, but I’ve learned that everyone has a line that can’t be crossed, a word that sticks in the craw, an image that feels like a kick to the gut. The First Amendment, bless its little heart, always eventually lets us down (self-protection is innate, tolerance an acquired taste), so how can I not be bothered by its limitations?

This is a running log of arguments over free speech – some silly, some funny, some hard -- because free speech is all about argument. Being able to speak our mind makes us feel good and it's essential to real democracy and fairness. Yet, in the end, one of the best reasons to keep our speech rights intact is that we miss them when they’re gone.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

trouble in Niceville

 Here's the story.
First question: There really is a town called Niceville? (Did Dr. Seuss know?)
Second question: Who brought the feds in on this?
The YES program, funded by the State Department, brings students from Muslim countries to study at U.S. high schools and learn about our constitution, civil society, economic system, education system, and all sorts of vaunted cross-cultural things, including, presumably, our sense of humor.  As the friend who alerted me to this observed, "The decision by the sponsoring organization to kick this student off the program and repatriate him would seem to run totally counter to this ideal."  In a lot of contexts, "Death to America" isn't all that funny, but it doesn't sound like he was a threat to anyone.  Besides, he got suspended for a while, which probably sent whatever message (that hoary excuse for censorship) the good citizens of Niceville intended to send him. Can we say, "overreaction," everyone?
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