Freedom of Speech in the United States

Yes, we have Freedom of Speech in the United States, but who goes to say we always

have the right to speak freely?  When one speaks freely, one might not always take it

the way it should have been taking.  Or might/might not agree on the topic being said.  

Which is completely okay, that’s freedom of speech.

Freedom of Speech is valued by most people as a God given right that is so important,

it must be guaranteed by the government. Americans after the Revolutionary War did

not want the government restricting their speech. When writing the constitution the

concern about protecting free speech was in regard to protecting political speech

(www.revolutionary-war and-beyond.com). We have had the freedom of speech, also

known as the First Amendment since December 15th 1791, when The Bill of Rights was

adopted (www.freewarehof.org).  Which reads, “The people shall not be deprived or

abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their entiments; and the freedom

of the press, one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable" (www.revolutionary-

war-and-beyond.com). President James Madison proposed the Freedom of Speech

idea to the congress. The First Amendment was proposed by two separate phrases.  

The first phrases is listed above and the second phrases read "No state shall violate the

equal rights of conscience, or of the press" (www.revolutionary-war and-beyond.com).  

The second part was rejected by congress. With that, the congress liked the first

phrase and passed that law (www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com) and the first

phrase became part of the First Amendment. Later on, after the Civil War and the

Fourteenth Amendment, which asked for all citizens to be treated equally.  The Courts

began applying restrictions in the Bill of Rights, including the prohibition against making

laws inhibiting Freedom of Speech, to the States (www.revolutionary-war-and-

beyond.com).

Yet, as what has recently happened in Virgina, when several kids were talking on line

about their opinions of controversial topics, this Amendment isn’t always correctly

represented (www.papers.ssrn.com).    There are millions of American’s, myself

included, whom only believe that half of the Freedom of Speech Amendment is true.  

We believe that this rule of “you can say what you think” is false and that the rule of

thumb is “you can say what those above you force you to say”.  

One of the biggest down falls of this is our very own U.S. government.  Proof of this can

be found in the first amendment, if you read it, you’ll see how the first amendment only

states what the congress can do, nothing about the three branches; legislative,

executive and judicial.  As an example, I bring up the Grand Jury and how it contradicts

the first amendment.  When you’re on the grand jury, you must be as secretive as a spy.  

If you revile any background information at all, jail for you for using your freedom of

speech.

In fact, the first amendment has very little to no power if you look at it from a child’s

point of view.  We should be allowed to freely question all, if any rules that have been

told to us.  Yet when one asks,” why we need to collect the red M&M’s before the blue

ones”, an adult tells us, “because I told you so”.  We should be allowed a proper

response, because our freedom of speech.  Unfortunately, our right of speech is

dominated by adult authority.

In the United States, speech is only free if it’s proven within limits.  Recently, in the

past five years, the United States have begun to share this limit with other countries.

The biggest example of this is how in 2009 France let down a large set of software

speech restriction’s for the United States.  Did the U.S. try to fight this?  They didn’t

even try. This was said on a page I read on line.