Captain’s Log: Freedom of Speech

I have thoughts. They’re not very organized; we’ve had a lot going on, but this whole topic comes to the surface in light of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner events the other night. 

A room full of journalists. A shooter. A manifesto. 

A country built on the tenet that we should be able to say what we want and the government won’t chop off our heads or burn us at the stake. 

That’s what used to happen in many of the places we came from. Some of the world’s greatest art, paintings, stories, and poetry exist because you couldn’t come out and say what you believed without ending up dead. You had to figure out how to make these important statements in a way that kept you safe and that you could defend – but you could get the message across, nonetheless. Embedded meaning inside acceptable subjects. 

Take the Last Supper by Leonardo – Christ at the center of everything, groups of three echoing the Trinity, and a basic, grounded human style unlike prior religious art that included glowing halos and exaggerated divinity. The master artist of the Renaissance presents deep truths in an innocent, earthy way, avoiding personal harm. 

Of course, we also have Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984” in their bombastic way, warning us of the dangers of communism and government surveillance. Slightly less subtle but equally impactful are songs by Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan, who, in their prime, made statements that pushed their social commentary into the mainstream. 

If we can say what we want in this country, why then do people feel the need or utter desperation to go around shooting people – Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk, JFK, Abe Lincoln. This isn’t new and not likely to stop because we’ve evolved somehow into better-behaving humans. 

I have no answers, but it behooves us to remember the First Amendment doesn’t protect us from “yelling fire in a crowded theater,” or saying something dumb on social media that damages the credibility of the company that writes our paycheck or inspires the big guy at the bar to punch us in the face. Not protected speech, none of it. 

“My right to free speech” ends at jail, or being fired, or a blackened eye when we seek to hide behind the First Amendment. Poor decision-making is not protected by the Constitution. 

So, while we noodle the vagaries of human nature, we’ll always be right here…

…Keeping you Posted.

Rach