Free Speech

Well, I have sat around and made a list of some of the things I would like to express on here. My list started out small but has now grown to around 30 different topics. I don’t plan on writing all of these at once but if I get the urge to write about something, I can just pull out my list and start typing. One thing I like to do is just ramble…by this, I don’t mean just speak mindlessly…but I do mean that I like to just write what I feel. This keeps me from having to cite whatever I write about. So if you feel that I am plagiarizing somebody’s work, feel free to let me know, but I probably won’t do anything about it because I don’t consider it plagiarism (especially if it is how I “feel”). The topic of plagiarism needs to be added to the list because I think it is something I could say a few things about…

So as I was making my list, I started thinking “should I write how I feel about this…that…etc??” Because I really don’t want to offend any of my peers/mentors and sometimes I hide my feelings just to avoid differences. And it’s kind of funny that I do that because I think of myself as a very expressive person. I guess I am just guilty of “playing politics” sometimes so that I don’t harm a relationship that I have with certain people. Sometimes I’m sure it is for the best that I just keep my mouth shut. But then I started thinking about it…what good does it do me now to hide my feelings? Sure, I still have a lot of peers and mentors that I keep in touch with, but really, what do I have to lose. I mean, I still have ambitions in life and still need help reaching my goals but I guess I have reached a point where I really don’t care about impressing/offending anybody.

What comes to mind are my college professors, I really admire them and absolutely loved college…but I’m sure I hid some of my feelings to avoid reprimand and the possibility of bias grading if I didn’t agree with something. I don’t think any of my professors would have been like that, but there was always that fear. I’m not saying all this because I think I will say something on here that will terribly offend any of them, but they are just what come to mind when I think about holding my tongue to avoid conflict.

So like I stated before I digressed to here, as I was thinking about what I should or shouldn’t write about, the idea of Free Speech came to mind. My first experience with “free speech” occurred in elementary school. I remember one time, after being discouraged for saying something, a fellow student (not me) replied with “it’s a free country, I can do (or say) whatever I want.” Throughout high school and college, I have always been taught to appreciate these freedoms that have been afforded to citizens of the US. But it did make me wonder while I was thinking tonight, what does free speech actually mean??? So I did as all internet savvy people of the 21st century do….I googled it.

It is always interesting to notice that when you google a term, wikipedia always seems to pop up. Now, wikipedia is a topic on my list of things to talk about because it is a very interesting concept…some (not all) of my professors in college heavily discouraged against using wikipedia for good citations (I hate citing stuff anyways)…but for the most part, it can make you a near expert on a subject in a matter of a few minutes (and I have NEVER found information on there that I could not verify elsewhere). So I read about free speech a little bit and didn’t get much more “enlightened.” And since I think I know the general idea behind freedom of speech, I guess I feel safer about posting stuff on here. So as I understand it, if what I say on here offends anyone, they legally cannot hold a grudge nor do anything negative to affect me. I think I already knew that but it’s a good reminder sometimes….kind of comforting (take that you government haters!!!)…that last part is just a joke…don’t get offended :)

I am proud of my rights. The First Amendment guarantees me the right to free speech. So from now on I feel comforted to know that the law protects me from any harm that could come from my postings on here… (Unless of course I violate any of the obscenity laws, which I do not plan on doing…and with all the stuff on the net today, what I have to say will be far far from obscene…I promise!!!)

Oh and by the way…if you want to see what I read, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech