Bringing Free Speech Back

Benjamin Franklin once wrote “Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”. This is a message which just like many periods in U.S. history has fallen out of favor. Assaults against First Amendment rights go from as high up as the National Security Agency and as far down as the school administration at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School in Woodburn, Indiana who fired Amy Sorrell, the newspaper advisor there, for allowing a Sophomore to publish an article defending homosexual rights. .
These attacks are all the more alarming considering the findings of J-Ideas, a Ball State organization created to foster excellence in high school journalism. J-Ideas discovered that student apathy and ignorance of their first amendment rights, including freedom of the press, has reached alarming levels. Their study on the “Future of the First Amendment” revealed that 1/3 of high school students believe the First Amendment goes too far, fifty percent believe that the government can censor the internet, and only 27% of report that they even think about the first amendment.
I have thus far painted a bleak picture, but have no fear the First Amendment warriors at J- Ideas including director Warren Watson are fighting back through education. They have released a variety of educational tools for teachers who like so many still believe that First Amendment education is a great priority. These tools include coaching sheets for aspiring journalists and an impressive DVD full of curriculum aids for teachers including the history and background on the First Amendment, a panel discussion with constitutional experts, discussion questions of the Bill of rights and much more. This curriculum aid recently won a 2007 Silver Telly, an award given for the best local and regional video and film productions.
This is a noble cause but is dependent on teachers like myself to embrace the importance of a free press, and freedom of speech for the preservation of Democracy. The historical proof exists to show that a Democracy built without constitutional principles like a Bill of Rights and the rule of law are doomed to a quick and often bloody death whether it is the French Revolution, or Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Throughout American history government has challenged First Amendment rights, but deep rooted institutions have kept our liberal heritage alive. Now the turbulent events of our time challenge once again our rights as Americans. It will be up to history to judge how we respond, but thanks to J-ideas the resources are available.
While the battle for student minds can be fought in the schools mass media can play an important role in spreading the true importance of constitutional freedoms in this country. The opposing viewpoint which plays on the fears of the public is getting a great deal of press, but it is all too rare to hear the potent arguments of free speech advocates on the air today. During the Red Scare it was Edward R. Murrow who spoke up, and during the 1960’s it was radical journalist I.F. Stone, but today major media outlets are concentrated in the hands of very few. Even in the 1960’s there were a large number of family owned newspapers, and media outlets were interested in ratings not the welfare of the massive business organizations that they are a part of like the Time Warner or Disney corporation. Today we need new outlets of expression, and I hope they are coming.