Freedom of Speech

Communication is one of the key factors in the success of human beings in the modern world. Without communication there would be no order to things and there surely would be a whole lot of misunderstandings. Thus, it makes perfect sense that it is extremely important that we have laws that protect our rights as free comminucators.

I stronlgy believe in the importance of the individual's rights as opposed to creating laws to protect specific groups. If we create seperate laws for different groups then it in essence gives certain people different rights which creates a sort of inequality.

If you look back in history and think about individuals who spoke out against the larger "group" (i.e. Martin Luther King, Susan B. Anthony, etc.) what would've happened if these people wouldn't have spoken out? If you take away an individual's right to speak out about what they believe in, then you take away the opportunity for changing the way people view things.

I did a study on GLBT rights around the world and found that in many countries who rely heavily on using religious standards to govern the right of free speech and he overall rights of the people within that country are the countries who commit the most human rights abuses against their GLBT communities. For example, in Egypt and Iran where much of the law is based upon Islamic code, members of the GLBT community are arrested and detained for either speaking out for GLBT rights (which most of the GLBT community lives in fear of being caught so often times they don't speak out and attempt to live secret lives), or for being caught in the act of commiting so-called "sodomy."

If there are only laws that reinforce a situational group identity, then it eliminates the rights of the individual who falls outside of that patrticular group or identity.

Even if an individual has the intention on creating evil through their communication their rights should still be protected. Just because their rights are protected doesn't necessarily mean that all other communicators have to agree with what another person is saying, it simply means that we are all allowed to express our own beliefs.

The beauty of having laws that protect the communication rights of an individual is the fact that if someone says something that we don't agree with, we have the right to speak out our own personal view-point on that matter.