I'll Stand Up For You

There's a lot of outrage these days when it comes to politicians, cable news, talk radio, and protesters. I have watched efforts to get these guys off the air or shut these people up. Please remember that for one side to be free, the other side must also be free.

Every issue has a multitude of ways it can be viewed. My life experiences have led me to view things from a unique perspective. Your life experiences may have brought you in at a different angle, but both are valuable enough that neither should be extinguished.

We may never find common ground outside of being fellow citizens. But citizens of this great United States of America. Our country is the envy of the oppressed that cannot speak out, cannot write freely, and cannot protest openly. We cannot allow ourselves to become haters of opposing views and haters of dissent. We are better than that.



Here are some of the best quotes I’ve found on the subject:


The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen. ~Tommy Smothers


Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart


Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too. ~Voltaire


I am thankful for all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech. ~Nancie J. Carmody


The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859


To reject the word is to reject the human search. ~Max Lerner, 1953, on book purging


Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings. ~Heinrich Heine, Almansor, 1823


Every burned book enlightens the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


The test of democracy is freedom of criticism. ~David Ben-Gurion


If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859


To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves. ~Claude-Adrien Helvétius


We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. ~John F. Kennedy


God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide. ~Rebecca West


If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. ~Noam Chomsky


I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ~Voltaire