Blog Post #3: My Favorites of the 8 Values

1. Marketplace of Ideas: 

John Milton has a theory that, to my understanding, if everyone speaks freely and puts their ideas out into the world, the truth will eventually come out and rise to the top. I like this theory because the first amendment follows these same guidelines. If James Madison wanted the first amendment to be more strict and not allow people to speak freely on all topics, then he would have changed his wording to make it less vague. This theory is very prevalent today with our current political state. Not everyone, including me, agrees with complete freedom of speech. However, when our country is going through such difficult times like our current situation, people need to speak freely so we can hear all points of view.

I feel like this theory is not a great argument for freedom of speech. If everyone offers their opinion, we cannot assume that the truth will come out of that. In many situations that America has already experienced, when there are too many opinions and ideas, people get confused and no one can come up with an answer. However, this theory could work better than what we currently have going on which is, too many people having one unified opinion and sticking to it. When James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights, he intended for our country to be separated by parties, but for every party to be equally represented in the Senate and for people to be able to compromise. Even if you don't like what people have to say, how could it be the government's job to control their voice? 

There is a reason these 8 values are just theories and that is because there will never be a way to word the first amendment to please everyone and not allow any room for error. People can have their own opinions about what people should or should not be able to say, but because humans are impressionable, we can be persuaded to any side of an argument. 

5. Watchdog Rule:

Vince Blasi's theory on the first amendment is that everyone needs to have freedom of speech and press to alert people about governmental actions. We can't just rely on journalists and they cannot just rely on the public. Blasi stated, “check the abuse of power by public officials” in his article called, "The Checking Value in First Amendment Theory.” We have to be united in our freedom, but not necessarily in our ideas. I completely agree with this because I feel as if a lot of our rights are already taken away from us, especially as young adults; with an emphasis on adults. Even though we are young we still have all the same rights as older adults and our voice matters. Without freedom of speech, our only liberty would be going to the voting polls every four years instead of being a part of the discussion. 

Even though I agree with Blasi's idea, it is not so white or black. Technically everyone has freedom of speech and everyone can vote, but there are still rules and discrimination that stop people from being able to do so. Just like before the Jim Crow era, living communities were segregated by white people communities and black people communities. This was a de facto law that they had to be segregated, which means 'a fact of life,' but not a law set by a jury such as de jure. Of course rules switched over to de jure during the Jim Crow era and black people legally could not do a lot of things, but it is important to know the difference between de facto and de jure and to know your legal rights in general because people cannot always stop you from doing something even if they think they can. 

The ideal situation would be to stick to the constitution and give everyone their rights. However, it is common knowledge that poor people, people of color, or anyone else who doesn't fit the "classic American" description get's treated as less than. I hope and pray that one day our United States would actually be united and stay true to what our founding fathers intended to mean in the Constitution.