Freedom: To and From

What is freedom? To the average American, it’s almost indefinable: it just is. Really, though, there are two distinct freedoms that Americans hold dear: freedom to and freedom from.

Americans are aware that we have the freedom to own property, own and use firearms, and to speak our minds on many topics. Better yet, we have the freedom to choose our own government representatives. We have the freedom to do anything not forbidden by our federal, state, and local laws. Many are also aware that we have freedom from government repression of speech, religion, press, intrusion into our daily lives, imprisonment without reason, and seizure of private property without due recompense. Those freedoms are, after all, so important that they were written into our first and foremost legal document: the Constitution of the United States. This document overrides any other law, federal, state, or local, that contradicts it.

We do not, however, have the freedom from being offended.

Nowhere in the Constitution is anyone, of any race, sex, creed, or sexual preference guaranteed the right to never be offended by the speech of another. They’re guaranteed the right to equality, to having the expectation that the government cannot discriminate against them because of their race, sex, creed, or sexual preference by the Constitution of the United States; however, the right to freedom from offense is nowhere except in the fevered minds of those who see repression even in the personal opinions of private individuals.

I do not have the right to never be offended. I have never claimed to have that right. I will never claim to have that right. I believe, very strongly, that whosoever has an opinion on an issue that offends me, either morally or intellectually, has the right to voice that opinion, despite my discomfort or anger. I will fight to the death to protect their rights to voice their opinions, no matter how much I disagree, or how offended I get.

I don’t seem to have that same right. Many don’t.

Granted, each American has—on paper, at least—exactly the same rights. Unfortunately, there are some groups that believe that, since they have been so repressed in the past, they have more rights than the other groups do. I will not identify groups, since we all know who they are. We have all faced pressure, either official or unofficial, at the workplace to silence opinions that are contrary to what is “politically correct.”

We have all faced threats being called racist, sexist, or homophobic, simply because we may have said something (perhaps meant as a compliment, or perhaps a joke) that someone overheard and misinterpreted. Some of us have faced more than threats: Larry Summers was forced to resign over statement summarizing paper topics at a conference, and Donald Hindley harassment over a criticism of the term “wetback.” Each, a white, upper-class, highly educated man, was persecuted and prosecuted by those for and with whom he worked simply because he offended someone with something he said. Neither man’s freedom of expression, a constitutionally guaranteed right, was protected by those in charge, simply because someone else claimed an unsupported freedom from being offended.

I do wonder, though, if the groups who are the most vocal about trampling others’ freedoms are not simply so sensitive to the repression they faced, and fear the return of that repression so deeply, that they see even opinions held by private individuals that will never really have any power over any member of these groups as a threat to their freedom from official, governmental, repression.

If this is the case, they have my deepest sympathies. But I will not let them take my freedom to believe what I want, or my freedom to express those beliefs. Nor will I allow theirs to be trampled.