Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Norm Brewer First Amendment Lecture with guest speaker Leonard Pitts, Jr. His message, both sobering and inspiring, is especially important to hear, not just because of the upheaval in our country and across the world, but because if we aren’t sharing the message, people may forget it.
So, what’s that message? Be ardent protectors of our first amendment rights. As a journalist, freedom of speech is paramount to everything I intend to do or be. To have that protection, or any of the other protections afforded to me by the first amendment, I have to first know what it means.
I’m pretty lucky that I did walk away from 12th grade with a general knowledge of civics, but Pitts told us last night that more than one-third of 12th graders don’t. To get off on a small tangent for a moment, if we are failing to teach our future leaders what our rights are, how can they begin to know when they are being violated or taken away? As with most things in life, education is the key. We must do a better job of teaching our children. As Pitts said, more people can name all five members of The Simpsons family than can name all five rights afforded to us by the first amendment. Think about that for a moment and see how settled you feel.
It’s not just our children that seem to be a bit confused by the first amendment. Pitts mentioned Sarah Palin and her lamenting over the Duck Dynasty crew for losing their show after expressing some controversial opinions. He made the point that I frequently find myself trying to explain, the first amendment does not protect you from backlash in a civil setting, its purpose is to protect you from the government intervention when you speak your mind. That protection is offered even to the most vile of opinions.
Pitts admitted to trying to find a first amendment loophole so he would have reason to advocate for the silencing of the vitriolic speech spewed by people like the KKK and Westboro Baptist Church. It’s a feeling I can relate to all too well and though some speech might be detestable, it must also be protected so that all other speech can be protected. Yet, if we find a loophole for these groups, a loophole might be found for my speech or your speech, or the speech of us all. Pitts put it well when he said that unless you’re offending someone with your words you probably aren’t saying anything of much importance.
My favorite moment of the evening occurred when the lecture was over and my companion for the evening, my 8-year-old daughter, wanted to go meet Mr. Pitts because he is a writer, and she wants to be one, too.
When we did introduce ourselves and I explained why she wanted to meet him, he asked her “What are you doing to further that goal?” My kiddo is shy and just shrugged, so I helped her out and told Mr. Pitts that she writes at home all the time, which she does (her current work-in-progress is a short story about a cat named Milly, a character based off her own quirky personality).
He told this burgeoning little writer how he began writing at five years old. He began sending works to publishers at 12. When he was 14 he was indeed published, and his first paid published work came when he was 18. His advice was to read and write and to do it every day. To work hard at it and not to give up.
The final moment of the evening, at least for us, was to personally experience this legend of journalism personally passing on his experience to a hopeful little girl with endless possibilities in front of her. When the general lecture ended I was motivated to protect our first amendment freedoms, but after seeing him speak to my daughter, I knew who I was protecting those freedoms for.
So, what’s that message? Be ardent protectors of our first amendment rights. As a journalist, freedom of speech is paramount to everything I intend to do or be. To have that protection, or any of the other protections afforded to me by the first amendment, I have to first know what it means.
I’m pretty lucky that I did walk away from 12th grade with a general knowledge of civics, but Pitts told us last night that more than one-third of 12th graders don’t. To get off on a small tangent for a moment, if we are failing to teach our future leaders what our rights are, how can they begin to know when they are being violated or taken away? As with most things in life, education is the key. We must do a better job of teaching our children. As Pitts said, more people can name all five members of The Simpsons family than can name all five rights afforded to us by the first amendment. Think about that for a moment and see how settled you feel.
It’s not just our children that seem to be a bit confused by the first amendment. Pitts mentioned Sarah Palin and her lamenting over the Duck Dynasty crew for losing their show after expressing some controversial opinions. He made the point that I frequently find myself trying to explain, the first amendment does not protect you from backlash in a civil setting, its purpose is to protect you from the government intervention when you speak your mind. That protection is offered even to the most vile of opinions.
Pitts admitted to trying to find a first amendment loophole so he would have reason to advocate for the silencing of the vitriolic speech spewed by people like the KKK and Westboro Baptist Church. It’s a feeling I can relate to all too well and though some speech might be detestable, it must also be protected so that all other speech can be protected. Yet, if we find a loophole for these groups, a loophole might be found for my speech or your speech, or the speech of us all. Pitts put it well when he said that unless you’re offending someone with your words you probably aren’t saying anything of much importance.
My favorite moment of the evening occurred when the lecture was over and my companion for the evening, my 8-year-old daughter, wanted to go meet Mr. Pitts because he is a writer, and she wants to be one, too.
When we did introduce ourselves and I explained why she wanted to meet him, he asked her “What are you doing to further that goal?” My kiddo is shy and just shrugged, so I helped her out and told Mr. Pitts that she writes at home all the time, which she does (her current work-in-progress is a short story about a cat named Milly, a character based off her own quirky personality).
He told this burgeoning little writer how he began writing at five years old. He began sending works to publishers at 12. When he was 14 he was indeed published, and his first paid published work came when he was 18. His advice was to read and write and to do it every day. To work hard at it and not to give up.
The final moment of the evening, at least for us, was to personally experience this legend of journalism personally passing on his experience to a hopeful little girl with endless possibilities in front of her. When the general lecture ended I was motivated to protect our first amendment freedoms, but after seeing him speak to my daughter, I knew who I was protecting those freedoms for.