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The question will always be: is hate speech considered free speech? If the answer is yes, then the Constitution protects all free speech, and must include hate speech. This dilemma always brings out the historic argument for limiting any speech that induces panic and violence. Historians then quote Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes' famed description of free speech gone beyond limit as "falsely shouting fire in a burning theater."

The best ... or worst ... examples of such abuse of free speech happened in the American South when mobs of white men lynched black men after being brought to murderous anger by hate-filled speeches of their leaders. Of course, examples have happened in reverse, such as the lynching of a white truck driver by a black mob during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Hate speech may be protected by the Constitution, but any such talk, not only if it is intended to goad people into violence, should not be tolerated. Kids calling other kids racially insulting names on the schoolyard is wrong, and should be stopped at its source. As far as racial respect is concerned, there should be one standard for fighting hate speech. If it is wrong for a white cop or radio personality to spew out words of hate against black people, it is just as wrong for a black rap singer to shout out anti-white lyrics under the guise of calling it music.

My brother and I were young men of the so-called Greatest Generation who served in World War II. As members of a minority, we met with considerable hate talk. It wasn't too difficult to live with the racially-themed nicknames we were called in the barracks, in the field or aboard ship. However, when we were confronted by more deliberate discrimination and vicious talk while in uniform, we often had to accept the abuse or fight our way out of it. In some aspects of hate speech in those days, the Greatest Generation wasn't so great.

We all know that any limits to free speech, no matter how hateful or offensive, will be opposed by lawyers, political activists and those who profit from the obscenity that now permeates all aspects of the entertainment industry. Therefore, it is up to each of us to determine when speech becomes too hateful, or worse, if it goes as far as the "burning theater" limits. Then, especially if we are the ones guilty of the offense, we should do everything possible to stop it.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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