by Melanie Hicks

Created on: May 09, 2008

The United States Constitution gives all Americans the right to free speech, but lately I feel that this right is largely abused. We have to remember, first of all, that the Constitution and it's subsequent amendments were written during a time in which people had some degree of grace, class, and dignity and would never broadcast today's filth and smut all over the globe.

I believe the reason that people throw the first amendment around so carelessly is to further their own agenda; and that agenda usually has to do with making lots of money by any means. The right to free speech has lost all of it's original purpose. The only people who even really seem to care about free speech is the entertainment industry and they only "care" when it keeps them from making their precious dollars, but I don't believe they fully realize what their carelessness has cost America's future.

For instance, in the world that we live in today sex, drugs, and violence are popularized in everyday TV shows. The CW's "Gossip Girls" is a new show which glorifies casual sex and the use of very explicit language. And the thing that really gets me is that they claim it's aimed at adults. What adult watches "Gossip Girls"? The answer is quite simple...hardly any. It is a show very obviously aimed at preteens to older teens, and such shows being advertised to such a young and impressionable audience are largely responsible for the moral decay of today's youth.

Also, there was a famous incident not all that long ago where a self proclaimed pedophile posted ages, names, and addresses of children in his state for other pedophiles to find. Why was he not arrested? He hid like a selfish coward behind the first amendment right to free speech. I wonder how those parents felt whose kids could have been, and maybe even were, brutalized and molested because of his right to say (or actually in this case post) whatever he wanted on the Internet. Was that truly justice?

The first amendment was created to give everyone the right to speak their minds, but again, at that point in history people would never have put sex, drugs, alcohol, violence and explicit language in front of their youth. At that point in time they knew that their youth was their future and their minds should be safeguarded and their innocence kept intact. I believe that we, as responsible people, should place certain restrictions on what is put out there for the world to see. Everyone should have the right to say what they feel, but it can be done in a classier way than it is now.

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