{"id":835,"date":"2015-02-08T22:59:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T03:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vapc.org\/?p=835"},"modified":"2015-02-08T22:59:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T03:59:05","slug":"freedom-speech-starts-talking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vapc.org\/vapc\/freedom-speech-starts-talking\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Speech Starts With Talking"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Martha Steger<\/em><\/p>\n

\"martha_steger\"<\/a>

Martha Steger<\/p><\/div>\n

Journalism groups as well as other organizations were quick to jump on the \u201cJe Sui Charlie\u201d bandwagon after the Charlie Hebdo tragedy. When I received a mass-distributed NFPW email seeking signatures for a freedom-of-speech (including freedom from self-censoring) message, I immediately thought of\u00a0 NFPW members (including a lot of us in VPC) who wouldn\u2019t feel free to sign our individual names, let alone our job titles for fear of what employers might say or do. I say \u201cour\u201d because as a state employee for 25-plus years, I vented my rage a couple of times by writing letters-to-the-editor that I never mailed: the status of my position was one that could be \u201cfired at will\u201d without explanation.<\/p>\n

I emailed NFPW that what I\u2019d like to see it do is start a national conversation on the subject of freedom of expression.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard tourists returning from China and Cuba proudly proclaim, \u201cThey don\u2019t have freedom of speech!\u201d as though our own “free” speech doesn\u2019t carry its own parameters beyond which we dare not reach. We ban hate-speech \u2013 and might at some point consider strengthening such laws, which France is looking at now; the Associated Press also has a policy of not running offensive images. This begs the question raised by New York Times columnist David Brooks (I paraphrase), \u201cDo we have the right not to be offended in a democracy?\u201d<\/p>\n

A blogger referred to as \u201ctallbloke\u201d online puts it another way:\u00a0 \u201cHang on, if we\u2019re backing free speech, we need to put our big-boy pants on and allow idiots to call us (whatever), if they really are determined to demonstrate their idiocy in public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The non-simplistic concept of freedom of speech\/expression has always carried deep perspectives, though it takes terrible incidents to remind us of its implications. I\u2019m of a generation that included my parents\u2019 recoiling in horror on May 4, 1970, as we watched on TV members of the Ohio National Guard fire into a crowd of unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War; four students were killed, nine wounded, in what was later reported as 67 rounds of ammunition in 13 seconds. It was an event that further sparked public opinion over the U. S. role in the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

A forty-something non-VPC member (who doesn\u2019t wish to be quoted) and I have emailed the free-speech issue back and forth. We agree that at some point laws within a country\u2019s boundaries — such as those governing freedom of expression — may be irrelevant outside of those boundaries. We in the U. S. are beginning to feel the pain of other nations with significant numbers of people feeling disenfranchised. (It\u2019s a bit off-topic but noteworthy that in the first weeks of 2015, when Europe saw the militarization of its police units, there was talk in the U. S. of demilitarizing ours.)<\/p>\n

My friend points out that this tiny world of close neighbors has a real population \u2013 and thankfully diverse neighborhoods \u2013 for which free speech is despicable blasphemy, even if few believe killing is an apt punishment. So the conversation might begin with, \u201cDo we redraft free speech to accommodate the exclusion of religious blasphemy\u201d? Do we circumspectly say, \u201cIn our country free speech is free speech; in your country other laws apply\u201d?<\/p>\n

She raised this question of me: \u201cTo take on a cross-cultural conversation means to include people who would carve out blasphemy from free speech and those who would not. Are VPC and NFPW really up for this or just cranking something out to be timely and \u2018relevant\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have an answer for her, but I do hope we\u2019ll keep the conversation going.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Martha Steger Journalism groups as well as other organizations were quick to jump on the \u201cJe Sui Charlie\u201d bandwagon after the Charlie Hebdo tragedy. When I received a mass-distributed NFPW email seeking signatures for a freedom-of-speech (including freedom from self-censoring) message, I immediately thought of\u00a0 NFPW members (including a lot of us in VPC) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-freedom-of-speech"],"yoast_head":"\nFreedom of Speech Starts With Talking - VPC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Journalism groups as well as other organizations were quick to jump on the \u201cJe Sui Charlie\u201d bandwagon after the Charlie Hebdo tragedy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vapc.org\/vapc\/freedom-speech-starts-talking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Freedom of Speech Starts With Talking - 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