Full Stop

I'm giving the floor to another one of those folks who almost never blogs her own political views:

When my student last night wanted to know what I was writing, I had to take a deep breath. This one wasn't going to be easy. He's not one of my youngest students, and he IS one of my brightest, and most talented writers. But, he is still a child. I had to explain my position in terms he could understand.

I'm glad he asked.. it helped me understand what I wanted to say.

I asked him if he ever stood around at recess and talked about the teacher and something she was wanting you to do in class. At his nod, I asked him if he could pretty much say whatever he wanted to say to his friends. Another nod. That, I told him, was free speech. The feeling that you can pretty much say whatever you feel like you need to say about something.

Another nod, and a thoughtful look. Yah, he got it.

"Now", I asked, "What if you knew that your teacher had asked your friends to tell her about anything that was said about her and her idea? Would you feel you could say anything you really felt like saying?"

A faintly horrified look came over his face. He got it. "No," he said, "I wouldn't want to say anything."

Yah, he got it.

Civil Discourse depends on Freedom of Speech. Without the Freedom to speak, nothing can really be said.

Go read the whole thing.

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Here's another long, thoughtful post from a guy who almost never posts, period.
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Stand up. Testify.
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VW chimes in:

Do NOT ask me to turn in my neighbors and friends. Basically that is what you are requesting when you want me to send you information about emails I receive. Have you no memory of history? Don’t you remember reading about how in Nazi Germany people were encouraged to ‘turn in their neighbor’. Or Stalin with his style of communism? You are saying to yourself it is not the same. But how did it start? We remember the worst of history… did it start as something as simple as this? Where does it stop? And when?

Just so.