Freedom Of Sppech And Expression

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press…"(Amendment I of the constitution). In 1791 when this amendment of the constitution was ratified, it changed this country's history forever. When congress wrote it they had remembered the inequity of the Intolerable Acts and wanted to prevent that from happening again in the future of their new country. It was also very important to the colonists because England had censored and made their speech so restricted they were reduced to nearly nothing in society. Unfortunately today this amendment has been manipulated to an enormous level because people are censoring everything to an extreme level. The first amendment is not only one of the most important amendments in the Constitution, but also one that too many Americans exaggerate and take for granted today.

England greatly impacted the development of this amendment. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England speech was so strict Parliament couldn't even debate the issues that they were to vote on. When they asked Queen Elizabeth to allow debate she said "Privilege o

As well as taking advantage of the freedom of expression, the freedom of press is also taken advantage of today. Throughout the Washington area a sniper is running around shooting and even killing innocent people, which has raised the question of "press rights vs. press responsibility" (Schorr, 1). Maryland Police Chief, Charles Moose has become very upset with the fact that the press has told every detail of the shooting. This just causes an ego boost for the sniper and basically tells the sniper what the police force's next move will be, thus putting the police at a disadvantage. Though the press should still report what they know, they should also be wary of the details they give out and not help the sniper in anyway. They can still give Americans an accurate picture of what is happening.

The first amendment had a purpose in 1789 when it was created yet today it is being taken advantage of in the press, through expression and through speech. It is important that we realize how lucky we are to have this right long before anyone else did. Yet we should never try to exaggerate what it means and twist it into something totally different. While self-expression and free speech are significant rights we should never but others or ourselves in danger by overusing this right. Before we do this we should always remember how life was back in the pre- Revolutionary era when British could arrest you for having a meeting or discussion without British knowing about it.

Nowadays the first amendment right is exceedingly taken advantage of and this has been shown through several individual incidents. In October 2001 Amiri Baraka, New Jersey's poet laureate, wrote a poem called "Somebody Blew Up America". In it he implied that Israeli knew that Afghanistan would make an attack on our nation. New Jersey's Governor McGreevy wanted Mr. Baraka to step down from his position because he was causing too much problems and Mr. Baraka even admitt

Some topics in this essay:
Charles Moose, Katie Sierra's, Mark Twain, John Wallace, Intolerable Acts, Boston Ports, McGreevy Baraka, Expression Congress, Constitution Americans, Americans Unfortunately, intolerable acts, taking advantage, advantage amendment, john wallace, amendment rights, press expression, free speech, thirteen colonies, english rule, anarchy club,