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Free speech is a wonderful thing, although it's often manipulated

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 16, 2009

Americans love free speech, and they should. It allows us to say what we think about our government - or just about anything else for that matter - and not worry about being thrown in jail. That's why we've been seeing protestors decrying the federal stimulus bill, environmentalists complaining about fossil fuel use, world bank opponents marching in front of G8 summits and peace protestors in Washington, D.C.

Perhaps just as American is to protest things we really don't know much about. Just ask the protestors about the stimulus plan, or burning fossil fuels, or world banks or the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They usually have talking points provided from someone else, but anything deeper than that and they really don't know the facts.

Even if they knew facts, they wouldn't necessarily change their minds, but it would be nice to know they've at least considered both sides using objective information, then formed their own opinions. Instead, too many protestors allow themselves to be manipulated by un-named special interests who love to stir up a hornet's nest, but want others to protest.

Getting angry without knowing the facts is a very human thing, though, and most of us are guilty of it. In many cases, it doesn't matter how much you understand an issue and make a conclusion about it, people with a different opinion will say you don't know what you're talking about.

It would be wonderful if we lived in perfect world and all did our homework before protesting, but that's not how it works. Average and poor colonial Americans probably cared more about just feeding their families and staying alive, but wealthy guys who didn't want to pay taxes convinced them to go to war against the British.

The vast majority of Southerners were too poor to own slaves but wealthy slaveholders who depended on free labor convinced them that the North was threatening their states' rights and they fought and died for the cause.

There are many more examples of public furor being cranked up over causes that weren't based necessarily on righteousness, but instead were manipulated by interests who wanted their way but didn't want to identify themselves. We're seeing a lot of that these days.

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