MOULTRIE, Ga. —  

Have you ever thought about this? If it wasn’t for the First Amendment, then you probably couldn’t ride around in your pickup truck with the essence of the Second Amendment on your bumper.

I’ve been in the news business for many years. And I’ve heard a lot of comments about free speech and the First Amendment. I’ve even been amused by some of the utterances.

I’ve often heard, “He shouldn’t be allowed to say that.”

That expression typically comes from one who disagrees with another. 

And of course wrapped in satire there’s, “If I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you.” 

That expression is often meant to point out one’s ignorance of the very essence of the First Amendment.

I’ve even been told in so many words that if I expressed a particular opinion I  would suffer retribution. So I said, “let’s go for it.” I think that person put me on double secret probation or something. Ouch!

Not long ago, a person told me I should not be running a particular columnist on the opinion page of our newspaper. So I asked him why? He said because the columnist was stupid. I asked him how did he know that the columnist was stupid. He said, “Because I read him all the time.” So I asked him if he often indicts himself. 

I’ve met people who appear to be afraid to read an opposing opinion, as if through some weird process of osmosis they would embrace, against their will, a foreign idea. In other words, don’t read Das Kapital. You might wake up a communist. 

During the past presidential election, I witnessed some very crude and hateful exchanges over differences of opinion.  I’m talking about blue-veins-bulging-in-the-temples kind of anger.  I thought to myself if this were a vampire, one could hold up a cross and ward it off. But somehow I don’t think holding up a copy of the First Amendment would work.

Of course free speech has some parameters bound by law. The old standard to illustrate that point is that one does not have the right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. It’s perfectly all right to yell “theater” in a crowded fire. Or to yell “fire” if you fall into a vat of chocolate, because if you yell “chocolate!” no one is going to come to your rescue. (Tommy Smothers)

I’ve collected a few sayings over the years pertaining to free speech.

The granddaddy of them all, of course, is attributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Perhaps one quote on free speech that should cause one to do some serious soul searching comes from Leo McKem: “It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree.”

That’s kind of like saying one can appear really bold while tracking through the woods at night in search of a Bigfoot when you know full well you’re not going to find one.

And of course I routinely look for the light side in researching philosophies and that’s when I found this one: “At no time is freedom of speech more precious than when a man hits his thumb with a hammer.” That quote is attributed to Marshall Lumsden.

In the realm of politics, maybe the greatest truth about free speech is expressed by David Joseph Cribbin: “Most people do not really want others to have freedom of speech, they just want others to be given the freedom to say what they want to hear.”

Think about it.

(Email: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)