If only one voice is allowed, that's not free speech

One of the great pleasures of living in America is being able to speak one’s mind without fear of censorship or punishment. The First Amendment grants everyone an equal opportunity to voice a biased opinion.

As a kid growing up in New Jersey, my friends and I enjoyed teasing each other and giving everyone we knew crazy nicknames. Without realizing it we were testing the limits of tolerance to see how others reacted and discovering where that invisible line in the dirt was.

I suppose it was all a fundamental part of growing up, of shaping an individual’s personality and character. We were poster children for the First Amendment. We quickly learned that we are all judged by how we behave and what we say. We didn’t need “Big Brother” telling us what was appropriate; that’s a parent’s responsibility. By defining oneself through words and deeds, it was easy to choose friends. I found it difficult to engage in conversation with people who spoke superficially.

Sadly, some kids I knew, for whatever reason, dealt with their adolescent insecurities by overuse of four-letter words. Expletives replaced verbs, nouns and adjectives making every utterance a cringe-worthy experience. Explicit words, if used judiciously, suddenly focus an audience’s attention on an important point you are trying to make, however overuse of profanity or popular words and phrases lose the intended impact and render the speaker irrelevant.

In America today, the words that help shape an individual are being stripped from society. We now live in a world defined by conforming thought. Those who disagree and fit a certain profile are ostracized. The news is filled with stories of people who lost jobs, fortunes and happiness when they failed to comply with the dictates of a philosophy that conflicts with one’s personal beliefs. For example a Christian baker lost his business for failing to prepare a cake for a gay wedding and yet Muslim bakers who embrace the same objection to such lifestyles are free to discriminate. A Caucasian sportscaster who used the “n” word on the air was fired from his job and yet minority entertainers can use the same words ad nauseam and it’s called “art.”

Freedom of speech means standing up for your own opinion but respecting others who embrace contradictory thoughts. When a society allows a single dissenting voice to overrule traditional values, then the rule of law is lost along with moral and civil respect, thus polarizing instead of harmonizing the citizens of our nation.

There are certain words in America today that are abused and overused as much as profanity. The best examples of this are the words “racist,” “fascist”, “bigot,” “hate’ and the “phobia” family including such winners as ‘Islamophobia,” “migrant phobia”’ and “homophobia.” Complain about radical Islamists throwing gays off a roof top or mowing down bystanders with a truck and you are labeled “Islamophobic.” The horror they cause is dismissed as a secondary issue.

Present hard facts to discredit claims by global-warming fanatics and you’re called a “fascist,” a “skeptic” or a “deniar.” If your argument is irrefutable, then you also get to be accused of being “racist.” Oppose the murder of unborn children by abortionists and you’re called a “woman hater” or “chauvinist.” Too often there is a lack of debate over the crux of such matters, only name-calling such as what is found at street protests.

Bring up the subject of a child raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant and, you got it, you’re “xenophobic” or you suffer from “migrant phobia.” With these and similar viewpoints it seems that when all else fails, you end up being called a “racist,” which has become a catch-all term to use when you have nothing else to say in defense of your opinion.

What happened to intelligent dialogue over important current events? Wouldn’t it be great if people didn’t cower behind politically correct cliches?

As a conservative I seek different points of view to test the veracity of my opinions but when a liberal counters with “racist!” or “You’re a bigot!” to everything I say, my thoughts return to our left-leaning education system and the brain-washed voters the institutions are releasing into the public.

My message to “racism”-obsessed citizens is this: If you want to earn respect and feel relevant in the real world, get over your reliance on cliches that your college professors and news media opinionators drum into your heads. Open discussion is a healthy thing, but responding to talk you don’t want to hear with profanity or politically correct buzzwords makes you sound like George Orwell’s “thought police.”

John Merlette is a resident of Bigfork.