| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front |
| James Bowman on free speech |
| 2001-10-31 |
James Bowman, movie critic for The American Spectator: I've always thought of myself as a First Amendment absolutist, but there is something ridiculous about people who would seize upon an occasion like this to insist on their right to be obnoxious to their fellow citizens. . . . Another professor cited by the Chronicle of Higher Education complained when, in giving voice to sentiments almost as outrageous as Jensen's, he had been heckled. But what about the hecklers' right to free speech? I agree that it's bad manners not to give even a loony-tune a respectful hearing, though it's not nearly such bad manners as priggishly informing someone who has just suffered a grievous injury that it's his own damn fault--even if it were his fault. The Constitution gives each of us the right to make as many stoopid remarks as we please. It also guarantees to those around us the right to hold their noses and point out the fact that we're stupid. Without this vital service, many of us would never realize just how vapid and depthless we are. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |