It’s not what you say, it’s where you say it.

It occured to me that somone reading my recent posts defending the “offensive” Muslim cartoons and then reading my post about the inappropriate speech at the King funeral might think that I was being hypocritical.

So I wanted to take the opportunity to explain why I don’t feel those two stances are in conflict:

1.) I believe you should be completely free to say absolutely whatever you want…no matter how offensive someone else might find it.

2.) But I don’t believe you have the right to say it whenever/wherever you want.

There is an appropriate place (and time) for speaking your mind.

Letters to the editor? Good.

Floor of the Senate? Excellent.

Internet: Always the right venue.

Funerals? State of the Union addresses? Oscar speeches? Not so much.

The reason is that while I believe everyone has complete and utter freedom to say what they want…

…other people have an equally inalienable right NOT TO LISTEN!

When you speak in front of a captive audience you are FORCING your speech on someone who can’t respond and can’t escape.

When you intrude on someone’s funeral, cialis generic cialis sale party, patient workplace, treatment home, etc…to speak your piece, you are not leaving room for the other people to avoid your speech if they so choose.

Remember, freedom of speech does NOT mean freedom to force your speech on somebody else.

That’s my opinion…of course, you’re free to ignore it if you wish.

Add comment February 7th, 2006