A life in words

  • Communism

    Question: Does insistence that communism not be part of [American] society unduly infringe on people’s rights of political expression and thus become the thing it is seeking to avoid? Proposition #1: Communism is not evil. Proposition #2: Solidarity against the evils of communism deprives people of rights. Proposition #2.1: Citizens have a right to seek…

  • Dance Party

    I went to a dance party tonight. It was almost against my will—I figured I would probably end up going, but when the time came I didn’t really feel like leaving the apartment. But, I had told some of the girls from the hosting apartment that I would see them there, so I felt like…

  • Crosswalk

    I was walking home from the library. As I was nearing crosswalk, a guy coming the other direction pushed the crossing button for me just in time for it to turn green as I arrived. I said thanks and went happily on home. It put a smile on my face. So push the button for…

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech … Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or control the right of another: and this is the only check it ought to suffer, and the only bounds it ought to know. … A free People will be shewing that they are so, by their freedom of speech. … Freedom of speech is ever the symptom, as well as the effect of a good government. … Guilt only dreads liberty of speech, which drags it out of its lurking holes, and exposes its deformity and horror to daylight.Benjamin Franklin, Silence Dogood no. 8, 1722 (orthography and spelling modernized)