Where freedom of speech meets the right to life: I do not believe I have to approve of the speech that someone else offers in order to validate their right to life. Not only do I not have to approve it, I can consider it downright heinous, bigoted, vicious, useless, worthless, nasty and terrible, without that opinion in any way changing my assertion that the person who offers such speech has a right to life. I wonder...how would Americans feel if the Republican party produced and promoted a movie that jokingly advocated the murder of our sitting president? Would they feel any less outraged than are certain North Koreans by such a mean-spirited emotional assault on our democracy? The fact is, I can turn on Fox News literally any day of the week and hear commentators lambasting the world for its insults against Christianity, and complaining about how theres a war on against their favored religion because verbal criticisms have been launched. Clearly then, we in the US are not immune to having negative reactions to the CONTENT of the free speech of other people. I have declared several times on my own FB page that I do not tolerate meanness, personal attacks, insults, or other forms of communication that are calculated to wound ones opponent rather than deliver a fatal blow to that opponents IDEA. This does not mean I do not stand by that individuals absolute right to be nasty. It does mean that I am choosing, for the sake of elevating the way I choose to engage with other humans, NOT to provide a platform for nastiness, or a meeting space where people do not feel safe enough, or free enough, to speak their truth aloud without being attacked. That our species still feels the impulse to lash out at those with whom they disagree reflects our juvenile attitudes toward speech. We have many, many means of responding to vile speech, not the least of which is hearing it and realizing that we do NOT wish to propagate it, imitate it, or support it in any way. I invite us all, now that we are well into the 21st century, to abandon barbarism—both the aggressive sort and the retaliative sort—in ALL its permutations. These involve physical violence directed at others bodies, emotional attacks directed at others spirits, and intellectual attacks directed at others minds. To love the sinner; hate the sin may perhaps be one of the most difficult spiritual practices that a human can undertake. Personally, I believe its vital to the advancement of humanity for us ALL to both practice this approach, and to master it.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 15:53:22 +0000