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Dennis Carr of Loveland writes:

Correct me where I’m wrong, but as I see it: The 1st amendment to our Constitution, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”, does not protect the right to say any ‘word’ that you like. It protects your right to express your ‘opinion’, your ‘thoughts’, your ‘ideas’, as it should. It does not necessarily protect you from all consequences for expressing those thoughts, opinions and/or ideas, as it should not. Nor, should it always protect you for ‘acting them out’.
The ‘morals’ of a society determine the words you can use to express that opinion or thought, as it should. The morals of a society are determined by the majority, as it should. The larger the majority, the less argument occurs.
In a small, close group some words may very well be acceptable, but those same words may not be acceptable in the general public, as it should be.

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

> The morals of a society are determined by the majority, as it should.

Great, then our society has determined that fat, stupid and greedy is the way to go. Regular pinnacle of civilization.

To anonymous responder - Instead of expressing envy and hate why not work within the system to make changes that you believe make for a better society.

The 1st amendment is to protect the minority from the majority. The 1st amendment is for jerks, for the rude, for the politically incorrect. "Polite" society doesn't need a 1st Amendment, regular society does.

"Great, then our society has determined that fat, stupid and greedy is the way to go."

Worse than that, a number of people seem to feel that reality itself not only can be but should be determined by popular opinion. In other words, the more people believe that the sun revolves around a flat Earth, the more true that must be.

Lemme see. When I was a kid living behind "TheCotton Curtain" (SC/NC), racist white radio station owners, "censored" Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions. They decided Mayfield's militant lyrics in his songs such as "We're a Winner", "This is My Country", "Moving on Up", would stir up their otherwise, good-happy-big house Negroes".

33 years later. I wrote Denver Federal Judge Wiley Daniels (black) a scathing letter, questioning his character, and he retaliated against me for having the audacity to exercise my "free-speech". Daniels )draft dodger) ordered 8 white Denver US Marshals to arrest and illegally detain me. They did. I ws never offered an attorney, read my Miranda Rights, allowed a phone call, or shown a federal bench or arrest warrant. Daniels should be impeached and imprisoned. He is lucky Denver Deputy USAG Try Eid, lacks the requisite "NADS" to protect my constitutional and basic human kind rights. Based on this dixiecrat "sulphur", suddenly, Clarence Thomas, Powell, Connerly, and Michael Steele (OREO pelted victim), don't look so bad. Mucho thanks to the ACLU for blowing me off to.

Next thing you know, we'll all be reading the Mister Manners column, written by our own "Roger"; all full of advice on how to deal with those "jerks, rude, and politically incorrect" who live in the REAL world; and who are not gifted with the knowledge of the importance of the difference between a fish fork and an oyster fork, as "polite" society people are.

Ah! The great blessings of self-righteouness!

Why do you want to have lunch with Peter Boyles?

Freedom of speech is good until you say something bad about Bush or his war then An American, Keith and the other Cons accuse you of hating America and want us to loose the war, and for the terroist.

Larry it seems to go both ways on this forum.
Facts get thrown out the door in favor of name calling and mud slinging based upon political affiliation or beliefs.

The 1st amendment is to protect the minority from the majority. The 1st amendment is for jerks, for the rude, for the politically incorrect. "Polite" society doesn't need a 1st Amendment, regular society does.

Posted by Roger on October 10, 2007 03:50 PM ,,

Sorry, Roger, but your statement isn't correct. The 1st Amendment is to protect everyone from the government controlling political speech, not the minority from the majority. Most of the violations of free speech involve a minority taking power and suppressing all dissent.

The first amendment is for all of us, not the jerks, the rude and the politically incorrect.

But your statement reflects a misconception by a lot of people. Our actions including speech have consequences. We've just determined those consequences won't include getting thrown in jail.

OG I totally agree with you, what a bunch of hoity-toities with their "polite" society............

I don't even know why I'm dignifying Roger with a response I think I need to just go to bed or something................

It made me think of a bumpersticker I saw the other day something along the lines of being proud to be politically incorrect which in turn made me laugh so I guess I should thank Roger for making me laugh, yea that's it.........

Seems I've made myself clear as mud. Let's try this again, shall we?

The 1st amendment isn't there for the majority speech or the speech that supports the government. It is for the minority speech or the dissent from the government. It is to protect those with unpopular, heretical speech and viewpoints and allows them to speak up. Along with allowing hate groups and religious fanatics to speak, it also allowed the anti-slavery groups, the suffragists, and the civil rights movements to speak in times when they weren't popular.

Also, as such, sometimes certain words and phrases are needed to get your viewpoint across. I know you are talking about the two word editorial. Guess what? It did it's job. You are talking about it. You are discussing it, which you wouldn't do if they had published a nicely worded diatribe. The freedom guaranteed by the 1st amendment did what it was supposed to do. It protected unpopular speech.

O.K. Roger,

Now, you're with it!

Sorry I got on you for the "Mr. Manners" bit. But that bit about "Polite society" . . . well, it was open to mis-interpretation.

Born and raised out hyar in Injun fightin' country, usns ain't all thet thar keen bout them as talks "politeness". Sides which, tain't no oysters out hyar airyways - lessn ya want them thar good ol Rocky Mountain ones.

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