Values of Free Expression

    Without the First Amendment, we would not have the right to express ourselves freely. The First Amendment gives us the right to be who we were meant to be and say what we want to say to get our points across. If we didn’t have this right, we would not be the people we are today, and I don’t want to imagine the sad world we would be living in without it.

    There are Eight Values of Free Expression that we went over in class. Out of the eight, promoting innovation best resonates with me. As a college student, I thrive best when I'm being listened to and my opinions are being heard. In class and while attending club meetings, students are encouraged to give their opinion and speak out when they feel necessary. Of course, being a college campus that shall be within reason due to respecting others and such. As a member of Circle K, I enjoy seeing everyone so excited when we are coming up with new ways to get involved on campus and volunteer out in the community. Without this type of encouragement from my professors and other students, I wouldn’t have the voice I do to state my opinions and questions. I feel as though the whole point of earning a college degree, other than receiving the actual education, is to connect with others that have the same interests as you and bounce creative ideas off each other to better connect with your surrounding community. The independence and free speech you have in college are nothing like high school, so the time spent at college should be about exploring and innovating new ideas to help better yourself and your education.

 

    While all eight of these values are important in some way, I believe the most acknowledgeable one to every American should be to protect dissent. We have a right to disagree with what actions our government is taking. Protecting dissent gives us the right to protest and argue our side of things because I believe it is important for the government to observe how we feel about a decision. I agree that there are not a lot of people with even some basic knowledge of what goes on in our government, but that doesn’t give them the right to shut us out completely. For example, the Willow Project was approved, and we Americans are not happy about it. All over social media people are speaking out and putting up petitions to stop this disaster. For a problem as big as protecting our environment, we need the right to speak out in hopes that our government will listen and stop something so terrible from continuing.

    In my day-to-day life, not only do I see protecting dissent, but I also notice the 6^th value, which is checking on government power. This is very important and necessary for our government today because they are constantly making our country worse and committing illegal acts. More times than not our government has abused its power, especially certain presidents. For example, Donald Trump was making a profit off of his presidency. He used his power as president to promote his businesses, and it worked in his favor. Issues such as this one need to be checked up on by both the news and us Americans to ensure our government is doing what it should be doing for our nation. 

    Another value I see in action today is individual self-fulfillment. Essentially, this means that we have the right to free speech that makes us who we are. It sets the foundation for our identity. This idea is more straightforward and that everyone deserves the right to free speech because it defines who they are and their liberties. The right to free speech is a big part of our lives and it is so overlooked because it is something that just comes naturally to us. 

 

    The First Amendment is a huge part of our lives, and it seems upsetting knowing that not many people are aware of all its characteristics. These values of free expression are a part of our everyday lives, and we don’t even notice them most of the time. The values, unfortunately, aren’t always being paid attention to so it is our job to notice when something isn’t right and speak up about it. After all, it is our right to speak up when something isn’t going the way it should and fix it before it is too late.