Freedom of speech?

For personal reasons I can't elaborate, but I was very recently exposed to the issue of Holocaust deniers.

I think there are few people more reprehensible than those that would disregard the deaths of six million Jews--and millions of others. Not only is it reprehensible, it's scary.

It made me think about a conversation I had with Jeff a few weeks ago. We were talking about freedom of speech, the whole, I don't agree with you but I'll defend your right to say it. Who said that anyway?

We were talking about the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis. Do they have the right to assemble? To make Web pages and hold rallies? Jeff said yes and I said no.

I know, First Amendment right. But come on, how much does that still exist anyway? Censorship is everywhere, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. But if it were removed altogether, there would be anarchy. Still, you could make a pretty good case for freedom of speech in just about any instance.

Jeff's main argument was there's no sensible place to draw the line for future generations. There's no way to set a precedent. If you banned the KKK from holding a public rally, how would you word that for the future? No radical group has the right to public assembly? How do you define radical? He says seemingly necessary control often provides the roots of fascism. What's to stop someone 100 years down the line from defining Jews as a radical hate group? Nothing stopped Hitler.

I said precedents aren't everything. There's always an exception, and nothing can account for one hundred percent of the time, especially something written hundreds of years ago that hasn't been adapted to modern life. Sometimes you just have to leave things in the best judgment of people you trust right here and right now.

In the end, Jeff was probably right. We live in a world where you always have to account for the future, and where it's hard to determine who you can trust. But the whole issue brings up another question--when radical, hateful groups like the KKK and Holocaust deniers make noise, is the general public smart enough to disregard their messages?

Right now, for the most part, in the United States, they are. But that line can change. It's always changing. Forty years ago Jews weren't defending the rights of Palestinians to Israeli land. Today's Pro-Palestinian liberals could be our great grand-children's Holocaust deniers.

Today's most hated war criminal was once Germany's knight in shining armor.

Photo: Schindler's List found at Sydney Library