What Can't I Handle?

I am tired of people trying to censor ideas because they don't agree with them.

I don't agree with plenty of people, but I let them speak.  Voltaire said, "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."  I'm not so sure that I'd die for something trivial, but I still believe that people have the right to say things I don't want to hear.

I don't want to hear, for example, commentary ad nauseum about Barack Obama's speech at Notre Dame's graduation.  He said what he said, which I thought was pretty measured.  Let people think for themselves.

I don't want to hear the KKK or Nazi apologists spout racial and religious hatred, which includes hate speech against not only Jews but Muslims and Christians and whoever else they have in their sights.  I don't want to hear Bill Maher go on one of his anti-religion rants.  But the Constitution guarantees, despite the ill-considered Patriot Act, the freedom of speech.  If I get too offended, I can switch channels, turn off the television, read a book, poke Q-tips through my ear drums, listen to the Jonas Brothers, push bamboo splints under my fingernails, or whatever else I can think of.  

These people have the right to say whatever they want.  I have the right not to listen, or to disagree, or to speak against their ideas.  But I cannot shut them up or censor them.

I have close friends who tell me that they keep things from people, usually their parents, who "can't handle" their ideas or actions or beliefs. Self censorship is probably a good idea, and it's one of the reasons I don't drop my favorite F-bomb adjective throughout this post.   I never used that excuse though.  I didn't tell my parents things because it was either none of their business or they would try to use it against me or both.  I didn't try to justify that they "couldn't handle it."

I do not believe that government agencies should keep things from us because they fear we "cannot handle them."  [On the other hand, the previous administration managed to get itself reelected in 2004 by injecting and projecting fear.   It extorted votes from the population.  In the most recent election that tactic stopped working and they got voted out.]  We need to know facts that affect us.  If there is an anthrax - or swine flu - threat, we need to take precautions.  And I need to decide for myself what I can "handle."  

I don't want to hear about swine flu particularly, and for this reason I have stopped watching most television news.  When I do watch, I look for the information I need and then turn it off or switch channels.  

The right to free speech has two sides.  I can say what I want and listen to what I choose.  

On nine-eleven, for example, I did not have the television on until a relative called and told me to watch CNN.  I saw what was happening, was suitably horrified, and turned the television off.  I checked in every couple of hours, but most of what I saw was constant repetition, a devaluing, even trivializing in effect, of the event.  I did not end up with post-traumatic stress disorder from seeing the twin towers fall a gazillion times.  I did feel great betrayal, anger, fear, and distress at the event.  But I was not required to sit glued to the television having the tragedy imprinted over and over on my brain.

The graduates at Notre Dame last week had/ have the same two options I have.  Some of them chose to stay away.  They chose not to hear what our president had to say.  Others listened whether they agreed or not.   The two sides of the coin (should) apply equally. 

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