It’s a Called Freedom of Speech
Isabelle Tonso
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The First Amendment lays out the rights that we have as people to express our beliefs and ideas. With the First Amendment, we have rights that many other countries do not. In the First Amendment we are permitted to freely be religious, speak freely, write freely, petition and assemble without prosecution or punishment for simply expressing our beliefs. The first amendment is important to me because I cannot imagine living in a country where I am forced to silence my beliefs and ideas and keep them to myself. I have learned to accept it when people express views about a topic that I do not share and I cannot imagine not having that.
I have always accepted it, but I never knew why I should. I always knew I did it because that is how I have been taught throughout my life. I had never really applied anything thought to it before. I never realized what a huge effect the First Amendment actually has. I realize that the First Amendment is unique to the United States and the people should never take it for granted. We should all know what the First Amendment is and appreciate how much freedom it gives us. If it weren't for the First Amendment you would not be able to read this because freedom of speech and press would not exist.
There are so many countries where the people are not allowed to speak their beliefs. There are countries where people are punished for speaking their religious beliefs. The United States is one of the luckiest countries in the world, because we have the Bill of Rights which includes the First Amendment. I think that it is important for us to use that, we have an amazing thing, it’s called freedom. The anti-Muslim video is a perfect example of the use of freedom of speech and religion. The video is called the innocence of Muslims and it mocks the Muslim religion in every way possible, every chance it gets. It makes Muslim men out to be sexist and heartless. This video was actually made and exposed to the world in California and no matter how heartless, the maker of the video was exercising his first amendment rights. I think that we in the U.S. use that right every day and I don’t know what this country would do without it.
If we did not have the First Amendment, writing a blog using my opinions would not be allowed. Without it I could be persecuted for expressing my beliefs and ideas freely. I am a very opinionated person, if you look at my blogs this becomes obvious. Take for example my blog post from September 24 about a controversy from the movie Shouting Fire.
I believe that whether you are straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, or transsexual, you deserve the same love and respect and freedom as everyone else. People are always so quick to judge others just based on the fact that they are different. I just have compassion for everyone and if someone is gay then they are gay. I don’t think that people need to speak out against it, because really what are they harming?
If the First Amendment did not exist, I would not be protected and would not be able to freely say that. If we couldn't freely voice our opinions, it would be like being robots, opinion less, boring robots. I knew that we had a First Amendment, but I have never really paid attention to it until this year. This year I realized how important it really is, I have always taken it for granted. Because of the last 7 weeks I understand exactly what my rights are and when and how I can use them. I know what type of speech is protected and what isn't.