PLACE Forum

JULY 17, 2009 COLUMN BY LISA BROUILLETTE
First published in the Opelika-Auburn News

WHY CAN’T WE DISAGREE WITHOUT SPEWING HATE?

“The Last Jewish Holocaust Survivor in Lee County Speaks.”  Oh, the thoughts and emotions that sentence evokes.

On the most basic level, it’s merely the topic of next Monday’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Auburn program. (Event info: 334-844-3102, www.olliatauburn.org).

On a deeper level, though, that simple declarative sentence reminds us of the power of free speech and the sacrifices made for it.

Finally, it reminds us the rights of all people must be protected. Not just the rights of those similar to us, or those with whom we agree — the rights of all.

When differing views aren’t tolerated, dialogue becomes monologue. Communication becomes diatribe.  Worst of all, a healthy contrast of ideas becomes an unhealthy attack on individuals.

We’ve all been guilty of this at times.  Over the past few months, though, way too many of us have been guilty of it.

This showed in the recent disputes over the Confederate flag and the talk given by Matthis Chiroux, an Iraq War resister who grew up in Auburn.

Disturbingly harsh and venomous remarks, even threats, cropped up in conversations and the online comments to this paper’s news articles on those subjects.  Must we actually be reminded that free speech does not excuse hate speech?

The paper itself came under fire because it had the audacity to do its job and cover the news by reporting on those stories.

I’m fortunate. I was brought up in a culture of free speech and a free press.  But I don’t take for granted the American right to free expression – public or private, spoken or written.

That’s not surprising, as I’ve lived in places where expressing your views could be dangerous, even life-threatening.

I lived in the Philippines during Ferdinand Marcos’ regime.  In that time and place, whether local or foreign-born, you had to be careful what you said.

Similarly, the need for a free press was unmistakable after experiencing Indonesia’s repressive government censorship.  The impenetrable black ink rolled across great swaths of ‘inappropriate’ newspaper and magazine pages shocked me.

But that was years ago, an ocean away. Not now. Not in my country.

Here, now, free speech is protected by law. Whether it’s protected from intolerance, ignorance and just plain mean-spiritedness remains to be seen.

However we’ve overcome challenges to free speech before.  We’ve tried to address the practical ways free speech might be limited by class, race, lack of job security, etc.  We’ve learned that with free speech comes the responsibility to speak up for those whose voices aren’t being heard.

I’m hopeful we’ll come to our collective senses, that we’ll remember how much we can learn from listening to those who disagree with us.

In the meantime, I remain, respectfully, ‘willing to agreeably disagree.’

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