I love the beginning of the Gospel of John in the Bible…

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

It speaks directly to the importance of words, concepts and ideas. In today's climate, it could be used to shine a light on the importance of speech and why, as tattered and flawed as it may be, the experiment that is America is so important. It's importance lay in it's observance of the virtue of the word and of speech. So important was this to the founding fathers that they made it the very first amendment and then to protect it, they offered the second amendment.

The very notion of freedom is predicated on the ability to think what one wants and to verbalize and share that thought with others. It is at it's very core. You can strip a man or woman of pretty much anything, but as long as they can think for themselves and share those thoughts, even if only with themselves, they remain free, even if caged in a cell.

The notion of free thought is integral to a free society and one that espouses the pursuit of freedom, liberty, knowledge, progress and truth. It's ironic then that many of those that would call themselves "progressive" so often call for the limitation of speech whether outright or by measures so slight as to be hardly identified as such an attack. For instance, the phrase "hate speech" is a favorite of those wishing for a stronger totalitarian system. And make no mistake, that is exactly what they are asking for, though they do not know or understand the follies of asking to live under the strong arm of a totalitarian government.

Hate speech, as a term, presupposes a moral dictate upon one's words. While I think most would agree that there are egregious words and phrases and that speech can be hateful, it isn't necessarily the case in all matters or at all times. In fact, it negates any room for nuance or context. A bigger problem arises in the determination of just who it is that gets to make the final judgement as to any particular case or usage of questionable language. An even greater intellectual and spiritual problem arises with the notion of morality and who dictates it and by what power is it acknowledged to emanate from. But that's for another blog.

An argument could even be made for hate speech in that it may be found necessary to express the exact feelings or emotions of someone in a particular moment. That is after all one of the main uses of words, to communicate... Certainly if someone just lost a loved one to a drunk driver, it could be understood if that person lashes out in a hateful tirade against all those who drink and drive, or bartenders that over serve or friends that don't take away the keys of drunk friends. Of course this is just an example but it serves the purpose of identifying at least one circumstance in which "hate speech" could be tolerated and even understood as virtuous. And if there is one instance of this, there potentially are innumerable others.

My point however, isn't to defend hate speech, it's to defend all speech, sans that which calls for direct violence toward another person or group of people. But again, there are exceptions to that rule as well, as when a President declares war on another country. In doing so, the words of declaration of war are in fact a call towards direct violence against other humans and groups of humans. Yet another example of the nuance involved in such arguments and the need for rational thought and tempered minds.

The attack on speech has many fronts, slippery slopes such hate speech being one. Another attack is on words that should, if any common sense abounded, be self explanatory and little to no need for defense be in order. There seems to be a rather naive attack on words such as liberty and freedom for example, somehow associating those words with such things as extremism and even fascism. What is quite remarkable is that the exact opposite is true and the movement to make such associations is precisely a tactic out of the fascist and totalitarian handbook.

This website serves as a platform to honor, protect and promote free thought and free speech. As it is just beginning, it reminded me of the most important words penned with regards to words, those written in the beginning of the Gospel of John. So important is the topic, that it is directly associated with all of existence, creation and God.

I look forward to hearing what other members have to say and share. I'm also looking forward to sharing my thoughts as well.

Cheers!