Some Speech Is Not Protected

Pull up your chair so you can get a lesson on the first amendment to the United States Constitution. It seems a few of you were sleeping when the topic came up in civics class…

We had over 10,000 hits on our WFIW Facebook page, many of which with opinions about a message posted by a local school board member on his personal Facebook page last week. When some of the discourse became pocked with inappropriate language, I became the person who decided to delete their filthy posts. If they were repeatedly challenging people with vile language….I had them totally blocked from the page.

The blocked folks immediately showed their ignorance of the first amendment. They squealed to me that their rights were being trampled upon.

While scholars view unprotected speech in different ways, there are a number of agreed to types. Obscenity, hate speech and inciting violence are not protected. We had some posts which used the worst possible language imaginable in challenging the intelligence of others. I even contacted the Sheriff because I feared the posts would incite violence. I feared the temperature was getting too hot and someone was going to take the debate offline and deal with it in person.

On the positive side, the vast majority of those posting were respectful of those with opposing views and—while---I doubt anybody’s views were altered---the ability to express an opinion is as American as apple pie. Discourse is healthy. It is what has made this the most admired country in the world.

What we have experienced here in the last few days is our nation’s troubles brought to our street corner. For the most part, we are blinded by partisanship and suffer a case of political road rage….on steroids.

We all have the right of free speech as imparted by the founding fathers but there are boundaries. 

Yesterday some of you learned that.