When people become afraid to speak up or speak out for their beliefs, that is when freedom dies.

According to our Constitution everyone was born with the God given right to Free Speech.  With that free speech comes responsibility.

There are boundaries that must be respected.  No one call yell “FIRE” in a crowded theater just for fun.   Nobody should be advocating the assassination of Police Officers.  And no one should be advocating rioting in cities because a certain verdict was not reached.

There is also the ability to intimidate a person or group of people to keep quiet.  There is the skill to force a person with threats of violence to stay away from a place or a speaking engagement.  This is very heinous in my eyes.  What’s next…book burning?

When we start shutting down the ability to express different views, the slippery slope to fascism begins.

Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Libya, Iran, China, North Korea and the list goes on.   There is one thing all of these regimes have in common…no free speech!  No dissenting opinions!  No differing points of view!

A little history lesson, the Nazi Party grew out of a group of people who felt that their voice was the right voice and the only voice that should be heard.   They felt like they were the only party that spoke for the People.  They started controlling the media, started spreading propaganda and indoctrinating the masses into the belief that they were the master race and there was no one better than them.  The Nazi Party started to destroy literature which contained differing opinions than their own.  Then they started arresting those who spoke out against the ruling party.  The Nazi’s took control of the media to bring a narrative that fit the party’s stance.

Sound Familiar?  Let’s take that picture, and place it in another part of the world.  It played out in Cuba in 1957 and in Russia in 1917.  It also played out in Iran in 1979 when the Ayatollah’s took control of the Government and removed the Shah from Power.

From differing ideas come differing opinions.  But instead of opposing, why not grab the best of both ideas and use them to make a better society.  That is what Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin did when they crafted the U.S. Constitution.  The Southern States were opposed because they felt all the power would be centered in the North.  If it were not for compromise, we would not have a United States- a place where the best ideas created a union that has experienced a peaceful transfer of power every 4 years. They respected each other’s ideas.  Times were tense, but in the end the US citizens prevailed.

Here we are 241 years later.  Where have we come, and what have we done?  We have gone to the moon, and we have been to the depths of the oceans.  The USA created the first Atomic Bomb which ended World War II.  We also defeated communism by our resolve to uphold freedom, including Freedom of Speech and the freedom to express differing ideas and viewpoints.

It was differing opinions that helped to create ideas and solve problems.  It was differing points of view that helped to overcome tough times in the United States.  It was in unity where we prevailed.  We still had differing points of view, but we were united in our common cause to overcome an adversary or a problem.   But we still did it in unity-united in heart, thoughts, and ideas.  We still shared differing ideas, and we respected each other.  We have lost that respect for differing ideas and differing points of view.  We have started attacking each other.

We must stop attacking what is different and start acknowledging that there are other points of view.  We must stop attacking the person with the differing opinions.  We can respectfully disagree with the opinion, but we must stop attacking each other with hostility.  Once we stifle free speech and differing ideas, we end democracy and freedom.