The Meredith Public Library, 91 Main Street, will host a NH Humanities Lecture on the First Amendment on Thursday, April 11 at 6:30 p.m. as part of its week-long celebration of Library Week.
Everyone loves free speech in theory. The trouble comes when someone else’s speech disturbs social norms. Why should Nazis be given permission to march through a predominantly Jewish neighborhood? Why should anti-gay zealots be allowed to protest military funerals? The short answer to these actual Supreme Court cases is that the First Amendment protects the right to express outrageous things in public. It even protects a person’s ability to say harmful things: When municipalities have tried to criminalize hate speech, the Supreme Court has called foul.
According to Meg Mott, former Marlboro College professor and self-proclaimed Constitution wrangler, the debate over free speech is itself a good thing. She said, “We should all be concerned about the effects speech has on the social fabric and we should all be concerned about giving the state the power to punish people for things they say.”
Mott will be speaking at the Meredith Public Library on April 11 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the free speech clause in the First Amendment. The First Amendment, she said, is the principle guardrail in a constitutional democracy.
She said, “Once we start fearing our enemies more than we love our freedoms, the temptation to silence them with the law can be overpowering. Luckily, the First Amendment prevents us from ceding to our worser angels. Instead of putting our enemies in jail, we must learn how to co-exist.”
The talk, “Must Free Speech Endure Hate Speech?” is designed to be an open question. Some participants may believe the better answer to that question is no. Others will rally behind the principle of free speech.
“What matters,” said Mott, “is that we understand the good arguments on both sides of this question. Without that hard-won intelligence, freedom loses all meaning.”
More information at meredithlibrary.org.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.