As Americans and Montanans our defining value is our freedom. One of our most important freedoms is our ability to make up our own minds about what we think and how we feel and the right to express those opinions openly.
Freedom of Speech means that politicians don’t get to pick and choose what ideas get airtime or which of us get a platform to talk. Instead, it lets us hold government and elected officials accountable. It allows us to speak out when the government tramples on our rights or sticks its nose where it doesn’t belong. It means that we get a real democracy where every citizen can participate in open debate and engage in deciding the future of our communities.
It is unsurprising that Free Speech is constantly under threat. Over the course of our history, we’ve seen how politicians have tried to take this right away or weaken it. During the Red Scare, for example, politicians accused artists, scientists, academics, activists, and labor leaders of failing to be patriotic or holding suspect political opinions.
Sometimes, it can be hard for us to defend Free Speech. We’ve all heard people say things we disagree with. Worse, we’ve heard people say things we think are distasteful, disgraceful, even dangerous. However, it is precisely that kind of speech that needs to be protected. If one person’s offensive ideas aren’t protected in the same way as other ideas, it is easy for politicians to crack down on any idea they don’t like simply by saying that it is “inappropriate.” As Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia repeatedly noted, to cede any ground when it comes to Free Speech risks losing that freedom for all of us.
Our political climate is becoming more and more nasty with often vicious and frightening political discourse. As we face this moment, we need to challenge ourselves – and each other – to turn down the temperature on our public debate.
At the same time, we have to rise to another challenge: to avoid giving into our fear and anger to silence one another, even for saying things we find offensive. Free Speech is an American ideal handed down by our Constitution. For centuries, our parents and grandparents have fought to preserve this important right of self expression. Now it is our turn to preserve Free Speech for each other and to make sure that everyone can speak their mind freely so that we, not the politicians or government, get to have the debate on America’s future.
Sen. Andrea Olsen
D-Missoula