Freedom (of Speech) Ain’t Free

This past week we witnessed Barack Obama descending from demigod down to human being. While on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Obama made an impromptu, non-teleprompter remark regarding his bowling skills being “like Special Olympics or something.” He apologized to Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver in a call from Air Force One. The President learned a lesson about his right to free speech – it’s not free, it’s fraught with consequences. He had to pay for his choice of words with humility.

There is currently a Special Olympics campaign underway to end the use of the “R-word.” This would fall into the same category as the N-word, S-word, F-word and so on. In a country that used to take pride in our First Amendment, freedom of speech, it would appear odd to ban or end the use of any word. To use these words merely demonstrates the character of those that would use them. So, in essence, we ban the person that uses a particular word or words. Remember Don Imus for example. Do we really require a ban on the use of a word? Can we wipe it out so that it eventually is never used again or relegate a word to purgatorial obscurity. Maybe. But not as long as a particular group considers it acceptable to use a word while insisting the same word be unacceptable for another group to use.

This raises a question. When did this country become a nation of wimpy, spineless, shrinking violets at the mere utterance of a spoken word? How did we adopt this milquetoast mentality? There is an old childhood phrase that seems to have gone out of vogue,”sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.” What happened?

It’s time to toughen up America. If we cannot stand up to a word then we really do have big problems in this country.