DDO Essay Tournament: The Freedom of Expression is an Absolute Right

Fredick Douglas put it best when he spoke of free speech, "To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. " Our famers understood the importantce of the right to free speech and today I indeed to show you how it is important to our nation and our nation's developement by observing three key areas of analysis: History of censorship in the US, free speech leading to new movements, and free speech today. "If free speech taken away, then like the dumb and the silent may we be led, like sheep to the slaughter," George Washington 1783. Washington understood that if we loose the ability to express ourselves through speech, the press, or even petitioning the government to get them to act on an issue. In the infantcy of the United States, the US was preparing for a possible war with France or Brittian as President John Adams passed the Sedition Act which made it illegal to question the President of the United States which in theory also made it illegal for someone to run against the President as if they were to question the incumbent then they would be able to be arrested under the Sedition Act of 1798 (. http://www.constitution.org...). The Federalist placed an expiration date on the bill so it would expire before the elections took place to make sure that the law doesn't harm them in the 1800 election, though it still did. In the South, Post Office began to censor mail that contained abolitionist mail to prevent the northern propaganda from getting to the slaves. This tradition would continue on with the Comstock Act of 1873 where it was now legal for the Post Offices to censor mail that contained things that were concidered "obscene. " Then in 1918, the US passes another Seditions Act and the greatest member who gets hammared in this process is the founder of the US Socialist Party Eugene V. Debs who later runs for President from his jail cell. In the 1989 Supreme Court Case of Texas V. Johnson, Johnson burns the US flaf and argues that it is Constitutionally protected to burn the US flag via freespeech (. http://www.oyez.org...). The Supreme Court stated that, ""[i]f there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. " The Supreme Court here shows the importance of the right to offend reversing years of laws that had abridged the right to free speech as it simply offended someone. (. http://civilliberty.about.com...) Free Speech had also encouraged many movements and even egged on somethings causing great publicity to help push the agenda of the law. First is Uptin SIn Clair's novel, Into the Jungle, where Sin Clair outstead the horrors of some of the practices by many American factories and lead to the creation of the Federal Drug Administration which led to an increase in demands for American goods as people could be sure their food didn't have a piece of Borris (Borris was the character in Into the Jungle that lost his hand to the meat grinder) in it and that their medicine is pure. The second biggest movement from the right of expression was the NWP's (National Women's Party) protests on the White House front gates during the war where they would risk falling under the category of violating the Sedition Act of 1918, but contintued anyways. She argued that Since Wilson was giving democracy to the Germans overseas why not give the millions of women back home the right to vote. Your Vote is your voice in the government. In the modern day there are three main perponents to the freedom of expression: the Phelps, Tea Party, and Corporations. The Westboro Baptist Church no mater how imfamous they are always make the news with their protests. We have known the Phelps to protest gay marriage and the death of military members and in 2010 they picketted the funeral of Lance Corpral Matthew Synder. His father was tramatised after seeing the signs of the protesting and sued the Phelps, but failed in an 8-1 decission which reinforeced the ruiling of the Texas V. Johnson Supreme Court Case. (. http://www.oyez.org...) The Tea Party protests popped up in 2009 in response to Obama bailing out companies and not showing government responsability. In 2010 and 2012 they had won a large amount of seats in Congress. Corporations are another case. In 1971, Congress passed FECA whihc limited political campaign donations, but was overturned 5 years later in the 1976 Supreme Court Case Buckley V. Valeo where they found that money is a type of speech and cannot be supressed. In 2010, that idea was reinforced when the federal government decided that Coorporations have the same rights as humans in the court case Citizens United V. FEC. In conclusion, we can see that the freedom of Expression is a paramount that we must have it as an absolute right to have our say in our dayly lives and our government.