Taking Free Speech Seriously

Now that Hosni Mubarak has resigned as President of Egypt, all those activists who have been struggling for years as well as the throngs of crowds that have taken to the streets, the real work now begins to try to assemble a new government (perhaps) with an eye toward meeting some of the demands that forced Mubarek's hand. Among these is is freedom of speech, which has taken a beating in years past (literally sometimes) against those expressing dissenting points of view.

Teaching a free speech class this unfolding of events has really forced me to think about just how seriously we take the issue of free speech. On the surface, we argue a lot about this, claim our free speech rights at the drop of a hat when someone tries to silence us, but do we really understand the complex history of free speech in the United States? Do we really want to know?

Now, don't take this the wrong way, but I am sometimes struck by students who really don't care to know how this all came about. Some tell me, "I just don't like history" or "this is too complicated" or "this history is boring." But, when I look at faces of protesters in Egypt on the news, and see people who are really, perhaps for the first time, seeking what it feels like to express oneself freely, in public, through speeches, poetry, art, music, calling leaders to account, and then seeing the result unfold, I cannot but think that these folks know this history of repression intimately and now see change happening. Perhaps we in the United States are just too complacent about our "rights," or we figure someone else can worry about them. Or we don't care. I am not sure.

I would urge that to really understand what free speech means today requires the perspective that history can give us--warts and all. That history is essential for us to understand. For, as I hope students will learn in my class, many people faced enormous struggles to gain such freedom in the face of oppression, served jail time for speaking out, suffered violent deaths, or confronted government officials in non-violent ways to assert their right to speak, be heard, and state their grievances. Just like in Egypt. Not the same, of course, but human struggles to be heard have a kind of shared eloquence to me. All we have to do is listen (and take those stories seriously).

Photos: CM Coexistencemag.com (from The Terry Project blog); This Week in History from Peacebuttons