EIGHT VALUES OF FREE EXPRESSION

The free speech value #3 of “Stable Change” resonated with me in light of the George Floyd protests following his murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020. I grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C. and the city leaders there decided on two courses of action at that time to calm protestors. Interestingly, the Winston-Salem Police Chief Catrina Thompson (appointed) was an African-American woman and the Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough (elected) was an African-American man. While the city is 50% African-American, the county is only 25% African-American. Both were the first African-Americans to hold their posts, and the fact that Kimbrough defeated the white Republican incumbent in the recent 2018 election was significant. They joined forces to sanction a march/protest through the streets of downtown Winston-Salem at 5:00 p.m. on May 31, 2020, ending in a grassy area one mile away where there was plenty of room for thousands of protestors to spread out (Winston-Salem Journal). 

They ensured that there was an appropriate platform for speakers, etc. Secondly, they obtained the approval of the city council for the protestors to paint BLM slogans on North Main Street (actually ON the asphalt street) in Winston-Salem, right through the middle of downtown and in front of City Hall and the Forsyth County Hall of Justice. Those painted slogans are still there today, almost three years later. Law enforcement kept its distance and allowed the crowd to blow off steam. The most interesting thing to me was that Sheriff Kimbrough could have said it “wasn’t his problem," since the unrest and potential rioting was about to occur within the city limits (not his jurisdiction) and yet he saw the big picture and he fully participated in the organization of the protest. The end result was that the protestors got to have their say and were able to march and protest and the city was spared from bloodshed or significant property damage. It was an example of multiple law enforcement agencies working together for the common good and for freedom of speech without violence. Even though George Floyd protests took place all across the country and resulted in 19 deaths, 17,000 arrests and up to $2 billion in property damage (Forbes) (New York Times), Winston-Salem was saved from that outcome by its leaders working for Stable Change.

I regret that value #4, “Individual Self-Fulfillment," is the most important free speech value in modern day America. There is very little that “holds us together” as a nation now. Americans have embraced individualism to the point where we are 330,000,000 individual entities, unknown to each other, like ships passing in the night. We no longer “belong” to any organizations. Churches have seen dramatic declines in membership; civic groups like the Rotary, Lions or VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) are now almost extinct; neighborhood watch groups are an ancient relic. We all seek personal fulfillment at the expense of any common activities or goals. We value our ability to speak our minds unfiltered and without consequence, and we seek like-minded individuals online and create virtual (not personal) friendships. As we lose the personal social interaction of belonging to groups (perhaps where we do not agree all of the time with everyone in our church or YMCA) we now pick web contacts with whom we have 100% agreement.

We are rapidly losing our ability to quietly listen to differing viewpoints and realize that we are not always right, and that our rights are not always paramount. Our failure to think of and act for the common good will result in the eventual destruction of our nation. Our current path, if unaltered, will lead to further fragmenting and polarization in our nation. Already, our federal government is almost paralyzed. The U.S. Senate cannot accomplish anything because it cannot get 60 Senators to agree on anything. The U.S. house is split along party lines where only a handful of votes separate the two parties and there is absolutely no compromise. The President is able to enact a large portion of his agenda simply because Congress is impotent to stop him or implement its own agenda. The Supreme Court sometimes acts as a referee but since the Robert Bork hearings in 1987 it has been mired in political gamesmanship.