There is a dangerous trend that has begun to emerge in America. When faced with a problem of great adversity and given the choice between sacrificing some personal freedoms or carefully plotting out a solution there has been a dramatic preference towards the former. Such was the case after 9/11 with the Patriot Act and now it is becoming the case with the freedom of speech. A pattern is emerging in which the freedom of speech is upheld, but only in cases where it is non-inflammatory. Speech of a controversial nature on the other hand is becoming silenced with very little outcry from the general public.

In recent news is The Westboro Baptist Church controversy. Church members picket homosexual soldier’s funerals. More recently however, the church started a web campaign promoting their views. While web ads saying “God hates fags.” may be far from popular, that does not justify the fact that the decision as to whether or not to allow the church to continue their promotion went all the way to the supreme court. It’s understandable that people would be offended by this, it’s even understandable that the family of one of the dead soldier’s is offended. What is dangerous however is the passivity shown to efforts to silence the church

It is very easy to attack these people for their methods, slandering the dead in any capacity particularly when they gave their lives fighting for their country is offensive for obvious reasons, but what must not be overlooked is that while we as American’s are under no obligation to defend the ideas or methods of people whom we strongly disagree with, we should all be unified in our determination to protect the right of all people to voice their opinions in some capacity. Even if the opinions being vocalized are largely unpopular such as those being voice by the picketers, the fact of the matter remains that allowing the total censorship of any idea sets a dangerous precedent that so long as a group is in the minority it is permissible that they be silenced.

We ran an article in our last issue discussing Southwestern College’s student run newspaper “The Sun” and their battle against the administration of their campus which is trying to silence The Sun after it published a series of articles criticizing the administration. Whether The Sun is in the right or the wrong is irrelevant, what is relevant is that the unpopularity of The Suns ideas made them too a target for total censorship.

We cannot pick and choose who gets to vocalize their opinions and who doesn’t. Making such a compromise destroys the very premise on which our rights of free speech our based. If anything, it is the most radical of speakers we should defend the most, for it with them that the most grievous violations of our freedom of speech are likely to occur, and it is those violations that pave the way for future transgressions. Not every idea may be equally valid, but that is not the issue at hand. America is a country founded on the idea that no voice would go unheard. No matter how unpopular that voice may be or how unpleasant the message.