I want to start this post by stressing that I do not understand racism or condone those who practice this medieval and uncivilized activity. My whole life I have strongly believed there is no difference in the color of ones skin, I guess I can thank my parents for never giving me a reason to question race. They always treated everyone with respect regardless of race, so race never became an issue for me.
Understanding this I am also an advocate of the freedom of speech, a freedom given that makes this nation stand out as an example for the rest of the world to emulate. Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of that which makes America great. We may not agree with what people are saying or their positions politically or religiously. But we have always felt that we could express our minds freely without fear of retribution. That being said I strongly disagree with what the SAE fraternity did but I must recognize they had a right to say the things they said or chant their chants without fear of political retribution. I feel they would have gotten their just due just by the release of the video labeling them bigots and uneducated simpletons. But it is a slippery slope when we punish people for the words that emanate form their mouths and although many times the words people say may be unpalatable it is important that we defend those right for when we begin to chip away at these god given rights in the name of morality or education we lose the very essence of what this freedom means and why it was established in the first place.
It is easy to say we believe in the freedom of speech but do we practice its meaning even when the content is uncomfortable, bigoted or perverse? I find what these young boys did reprehensible and I know they will be punished by their peers in a way befitting their transgression but is it really practicing freedom of speech if those in authority punish them for expressing the very thing that made this country a beacon of freedom in the first place. When we begin to punish those with unpalatable ideologies simply for expressing those beliefs how long will it be before those with power use that to silence all of us?
We must defend even the lowest of us if we want to keep the freedoms that so many have fought and died for, to budge on this belief even a little invites parasites to erode the rest away and in the end we will suffer far more for what we have lost than the words of some idiotic uneducated college fraternity boys ever could.
