Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech is one of the many freedoms we are afforded in this country and coming from someone with a very large mouth and a blog of all things it is greatly appreciated. However, lately I have been thinking there should be some stipulations put on that particular freedom or at least some general guidelines that out of respect for others we should all abide by.

This evening I watched a video on a fellow bloggers website in which they interviewed a number of people that attended the Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington D.C. As I watched this I was disturbed by the number of people who felt so strongly about topic for which they could not formulate a coherent sentence. And even if they could by chance formulate a coherent and grammatically correct sentence their argument as a whole made no sense.

Now before everyone gets all worked up and tells me that I am being unfairly biased towards the people that land on the conservative side of the spectrum, I would like to say this. I have no problem debating the issues with someone identifying themselves as a Republican. We will probably agree on very little but if you are up to a good debate and can formulate coherent thought, bring it on, sounds like a good time and believe it or not we could be friends at the end of the day too.

I do have one request however. Whether you are Republican or Democrat, Christian or Atheist, or any other side of any other topic, please please PLEASE be able to formulate a coherent thought (preferably several thoughts strung together) and do some research on the topic you are debating to ensure that you have actual fact. Nothing is more frustrating to me than trying to have a conversation with someone and you swear you heard that exact same argument on one of those 24 hour new stations the night before. . .oh wait because YOU DID!

So the bottom line is I love that we have the right to freely speak our minds. I do it on a fairly regular basis. All I ask is that if you are going to take advantage of this wonderful right that you take a moment to collect your thoughts, put them in a coherent order, and take your fact checking beyond the "breaking news" you heard on CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS or any other ridiculous 24 hour all day every day new station.