by Dexter Pitmann

Created on: February 27, 2010   Last Updated: February 28, 2010

A gentle wind snaked its way through a closely-packed crowd of high school students waiting to graduate in a small suburb of Alabama. Perhaps it was the extreme temperatures and the piercing sun that brought about looks of discomfort on the students’ faces…or perhaps it was the exercise of what the class president believed was freedom of speech.

As he stood at the podium, with the sun at his back, every single syllable, word, and sentence was carefully crafted into a masterful speech of memories, recognitions, and farewells. However, he viewed the opportunity as one in which he had about ten minutes to say whatever the hell he wanted.

His intentions did not become clear until the closing remarks of his speech. With the audience in the palm of his hand from the beginning of the speech, he moved to concluding his speech in a rather unconventional manner: by unveiling a Confederate flag and asking for the remembrance of the Confederates who had perished in the Battle of Gettysburg almost 150 years ago to the day.

The founding fathers of the United States had key ideas in mind when they ratified the Bill of Rights in 1791. Fresh out of the Revolutionary War with Britain, Americans wanted a guarantee of their rights—an official form of documentation to not only limit the federal government’s power but to guarantee privileges to the common man.

Under the third amendment, the founding fathers said, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (Constitution Society).

The Bill of Rights offers no specific definition of free speech and only states that the government cannot deny free speech to its citizens. Many individuals justify all forms of expression as being protected by freedom of speech, and thus the main misconception about free speech is that it is absolute and above all other laws.

Freedom of speech, contrary to popular belief, is not the right to say or express anything you want; rather, freedom of speech gives people the right to voice their opinion but not necessarily the right to be heard. In reality, there are limits to free speech according to the laws of the United States.

As I searched the internet, I came across a way to discuss the philosophy of freedom of speech in an open forum on Yahoo.

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