Expanding Your View

If someone of a known hate group was invited to my campus to speak would be fine by me. I would welcome the opportunity to hear a different perspective and also have a discussion with them about why they feel the way they do. We live in a country where our culture has the freedom of speech. There is no doubt it would cause controversies but we are not the moral authority? Who are we to judge others? What an individual believes is their right and I am in no moral authority to tell them if their beliefs are right or wrong. If there is a problem people also have the option to ignore or take it as a learning experience on a whole different perspective then they have ever confronted.

When this person does come to our campus I would defend their right to be there. What free speech means is the ability for individuals’ to exercise freely opinions and ideas which is the First Amendment in the Constitution of the United States. This would go against the first amendment. I value freedom of speech because of the history of tyranny in where those who lived under it did not have free speech and lived in fear. If the people under the king’s rule spoke out against him they could find themselves muzzled or worse dead. They made sure that the first amendment would be free speech because this was the most important. They wanted people to be free to speak their mind and be able to bring their ideas to the table. Thus if a leader of a hate group was to speak at a campus they would have every right to do so. Free speech is free speech. No matter how we feel about what they say, they have a right to say whatever it is they want to. Most of us would find what they would say as appalling but again it is their right to say that. Free speech is not a one-way street. When we talk to each other we can begin to understand one another. Hopefully when we talk new ideas would be exchanged and minds would begin to open and maybe, just maybe that person would change. Maybe it will not be a dramatic change, just a seed we may plant in their heads about the opposing side of an argument and they will begin to asses if what they truly believe is right. This is why the U.S. is a great country, and stands out from the globe; because we allow and accept other’s view as well as we can comment on their view for the purpose of improvement, not harming each other. If we do not let them speak because their tones are offensive to others, how can we analyze and help to understand one another. People should listen to both sides of the argument in order to make a proper decision. There are times, we need to listen, or step back, so we can speak and go forward to make the world a better place to live.