indrora:
just saying
yikes.
wait that was them?
https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-history-taking-stand-free-speech-skokie
https://www.aclu.org/about/aclu-history
http://www.jta.org/1978/06/14/archive/aclu-defends-representing-nazis-at-free-speech-convocation
Let’s talk about unpopular opinions.
So you like the idea that science is a good thing and you can reason through the meaning of things and that you don’t need the bible (Christian one, that is) to live a meaningful life. Congratulations, your opinion was once considered so radical it would have you killed under calvanist law.
In Turkey, Erdogan is so egotistical that those who talk smack about him are considered extremists and killed. In China, there are things you will be investigated for talking about at any length, more so if you read about them.
Free speech, no matter how unpopular, is a fundamental backbone of our country. Without it, we would still have slaves, Jim crow laws and women who were legally property of their husbands.
Free speech gave women the right to vote. This was so unpopular that the women who fought for that right, the suffragettes, were persecuted and killed.
Black men and women marched in the civil rights movements that were literally compared to rowdy dogs and livestock that it was nearly a death sentence to speak out against racist oppression.
Bernie Sanders would have been called a dirty redfaced commie had he talked like he did on the campaign trail back in the cold war. His political career, his life, ruined because of McCarthyism.
LGBT men, queers, women, fathers, mothers, daughters and sons have been attacked for having the audacity to want to fight for the LGBT community using their voice and their passion.
Vietnam war protesters were attacked for wanting peace, not war.
Their speech was radical. Against the grain.
There’s a funny thing about American law. A core ideal of American law is that the rights of people and the laws that govern are applied equally. Not when it is convenient. Not when it is unpleasant or pleasant. Always equally, always. Never favoring any one party. Never favoring the ruling tide.
All the time. We are given the right of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of congregation, freedom of how we as American citizens wish to run our lives. We as citizens are expected – nee *implored* to defend the rights of others.
When KKK members were taken to hospitals, black nurses and surgeons chose to set aside the hate that had been dished out to them and operate on and keep those KKK members alive. They did that because no human deserves to die because of hate. They saved lives that had been used to hurt their fellow man.
Jewish doctors have brought nazis back to health. Israeli doctors have done their duty faithfully and kept Palestinian patients alive. They swore to do no harm, to heal the sick, to look past all that you and I would allow a fellow human to suffer and die over.
As a lawyer, you swear to apply the law fairly, justly, equally.
The ACLU defended the rights of American citizens to say things that others considered hateful, even nazis and McCarthyism, citizens who were considered out of line for wanting to be considered an equal. They did this because they understood that some day, the tables may turn. And when those tables turn, history will say: No matter how radical, charged or socially unacceptable the statement, the law and the rights of citizens must not be in jeopardy and must always be applied equally and consistently, fairly and justly. The ability of citizens to state their opinion, stand and preach their word, must be upheld in every case, lest it become in the favor of the ruling party line.
When the Trump administration tries to make talking about science illegal, I will step up and yell just as loud. I’ll defend a nazi to say their thing. I’ll also make damn sure that nazi feels the effects and results of saying that.
Free speech is not without consequences. But it must be upheld. Always. Equally.