Former ‘Onion’ editor: Freedom of speech cannot be killed

[babylonsister]

A man raises a pen during a rally in support of the victims of today's terrorist attack on French satyrical newspaper Charlie Hebdo at the Place de la Republique in Paris, on Jan. 7, 2015.
Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty

Former ‘Onion’ editor: Freedom of speech cannot be killed
01/07/15 01:09 PM—Updated 01/07/15 02:19 PM
By Joe Randazzo


snip//


Our society is possibly the freest that humankind has yet produced and that freedom is predicated on one central idea: the right to speech. That right is understood as a natural extension of our very existence. In America, free speech is so important that the men who wrote our Bill of Rights put it first, but followed it up with our right to bear arms. To me, that’s always been a pretty strong message: Say what you want and, here, take some guns to make sure no one tries to stop you. But in this state of widespread social change – probably the most profound in centuries – we need to make sure that the ideal of the second amendment never, ever trumps the power of the first. That brute force never negates ideas.

This is a loss for all of humanity. The victims, people who believed with passion and intellect that humankind can be better, were struck down in the birthplace of the Enlightenment, the movement from which the modern world emanates.

The Charlie Hebdo gunmen also shot a police officer in the head as he lay dying on the sidewalk. These people are not just enemies of cartoonists or the ideals of the West. They’re enemies of human life. They care for nothing, believe in nothing worth believing in, and therefore their ideology, whatever it may be, is worthless. Moot. Not even worth our consideration for a moment.

They cannot kill everyone who disagrees with them. There are not enough bullets in the world for that. The most responsible thing we can do is be aware that the most likely threat to freedom will now come from within. We cannot, should not, police our own thoughts – or the thoughts of our fellow citizens. Because the First Amendment does not just protect our free speech; it protects all expression, including religion.

Nor can we lose sight of terrorism in any of its forms. Whether it comes from radicals abroad or radicals at home. No matter what ideas they try to kill on whatever end of the political spectrum.

more...

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/former-onion-editor-freedom-speech-cannot-be-killed

[misterhighwasted]

1. Precisely. Speech will be the last freedom to die.

So well stated. Bravo.
..."They’re enemies of human life. They care for nothing, believe in nothing worth believing in, and therefore their ideology, whatever it may be, is worthless."