Speech: 79¢ or two for a dollar

I would die a happy man if I never again heard that old saw that epitomizes the beliefs of Voltaire, but is misattributed to him: "I disagree with what you have to say but will fight to the death to protect your right to say it." Over the past few years, there has been a mentality in this country that says "If you don't agree with me, then get the hell out." More specifically, this is a mentality that is embraced by those on the religious right. They go even farther, delving into outright hypocrisy; they crow about free speech and the First Amendment, but if it goes against their beliefs, tough on you. While that's just an example, I offer up three cases of people whose speech was denounced because of the message.

Earlier this week, Sean Penn actually got some credibility back with me when he called out President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice for their misuse of our military. Normally, I think the guy is a nutjob, but what he said had to be put out there. Senators and Representatives who might ordinarily stand up to their superior won't, because they fear for their jobs. People who have been saying "Support our troops and not the war!" are marginalized by hawks who wrongly say you can't have it both ways, and that those who don't support the war are cowards or something.

The sad thing is that it took Sean Penn to get the message out.

2) Personally, I'm tired of high schools becoming battlegrounds for political action committees, and this case is no different. The "Day of Silence" is an observance that seeks to increase awareness of the harrassment of homosexuals in schools. (A fine thing to have an observance about, if you ask me.) Anyway, Heidi Zamecnik wants to wear a shirt bearing the words "Be Happy, Not Gay," clearly demonstrating her position on the issue. As you might expect, school administrators nixed the shirt, or said that she couldn't wear it without blacking out "Not Gay." Apparently, it's OK for one group to protest, but when someone else tries, no dice.

3) While we're on the subject, Monroe, Wash. high school student is against the War in Iraq. He chose to protest the action by refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at school. A misinformed music teacher said that the law requires students to stand and recite the pledge.

That teacher was wrong. One hundred percent completely out-and-out wrong.

I'm not sure what's worse: that a teacher would bully a student like that, or that the teacher was so badly mistaken when it comes to the law. You can read the article to find out just how far the teacher went in verbally castrating a student just for having a differing view. This is possibly the worst of the trio of stories, mainly because the teacher was dead wrong on the facts.

By allowing these deplorable events to happen, we are degenerating the level of discourse in our country to that of ad hominem attacks, rather than open-minded discussion of issues that are important. We cannot let that happen, and we cannot let events like these continue to take place, otherwise we'll never get there.