To the Editor:
There has lately been much debate about free speech. Such open discussion is always beneficial in our society. May we never lose the freedom, or ability, to listen to other points of view, some that seem contrary to our own.
Regardless of the legality, no one has the right to scream “Fire!” in a crowded theater. Good sense, endangered as it is, must prevail in any public discourse. Churchill’s tempered words brought Britain through the darkest days of World War II. Lincoln’s immortal words are inscribed in places like the Lincoln Memorial, and all are part of free speech used for the public’s benefit.
Perhaps the “Age of Debate” will rise again in our land, but it can only do so when we learn to respect ourselves first and then share that respect for others.
Thank goodness we are not all of the same mind-set! There has been no recent mention of the Great Compromise of 1787, which brought this nation together. At the Constitutional Convention, debate raged. Large states wanted control. Small states wanted equal representation. A deal (compromise) was found that created two houses of Congress. One, the House of Representatives, is based on population; the other, the Senate, has each state represented by two senators.
Regardless of what the mass media reports, there is limited bipartisan cooperation, only at lower levels of government. Wow! What a concept! Imagine Democrats and Republicans agreeing to do the work of the people who sent them to Congress to do OUR work.
Grassroots is where cooperation begins. Regardless of what they are called, leaders of our nation are really elected followers. They read the sentiment of the people, then pose grand schemes that make them seem like exalted deities. (Which they are not!)
Should our nation come to its senses and quit acting like Romans at the beginning of the empire’s decline, when chariot races and gladiators fought to the death and circuses were the opiate of the masses, we might experience a renewed age of debate. We would see movement in government for the good of the people, not the leaders.
If we, the voters, acted like adults and demanded reasonable actions from those in public office and would accept nothing less, then we would see the dawn of a new age of American greatness. Free speech would be the cornerstone of that time in our history.
Alfred Campbell
Cape May Court House
Editor’s note: The writer is managing editor emeritus of the Herald.
