When it comes to freedom of speech, the United States is not a perfect country, but it’s certainly better than almost all the other countries in the world. Is there such a thing as abusing freedom of speech? Noam Chomsky might say no, but I believe every abuse is condemned. For example, a few days after kids died in a school shooting, was it OK for the NRA to organize a rally in the same town to promote guns? They’re certainly exercising their freedom of speech legally, but wouldn’t you think they’re being very disrespectful to the parents who are mourning their children? I know some NRA members who wouldn’t think so. Despite strong criticism, I’ve seen them doing it more than once.
On Friday, some University students decided to exercise their freedom of speech. Lately, they’ve been watching horrifying live videos of dead, innocent Palestinian children and their hysterical mothers on a major U.S. news network (surprisingly), so they decided to take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and organized a peaceful rally on campus, where they brought “PEACE” flags to call for an immediate cease-fire.
Many other University students decided to organize another rally in the same place at the same time, and brought flags of Israel to protest against the original rally. They were certainly legally exercising their freedom of speech, but was it appropriate to try to “crash the other party”?
Universities are a place for learning and broadening viewpoints. No matter which side of an issue I may be on, I would have still listened to what the other side had to say and respected their right to speech. Maybe I would have learned something valuable, or maybe the other side would have offered me an opportunity to speak and initiate a healthy discussion, or maybe I wouldn’t have liked it and simply left.
According to NBC news, so far, out of the 800 Palestinians who died in the last two weeks, one third of them are children! That’s more than a dozen children killed every day! Does it matter which side of the conflict you’re on, if the protestors are trying to stop the massacre of innocent children? Anybody who watched the same news should have felt the same pain in their stomach because more than anything, we’re all human beings.
Living in America, I can’t imagine what it may feel like to live in that area in the Middle East, so I shouldn’t tell people which side is right or wrong. That’s what the UN and international laws are for. What I do know is that 9/11 happened primarily because some Muslim extremists have had enough of America’s military support to Israel.
Just last week, the UN drafted a resolution for a cease-fire. Like every other resolution about this conflict, the United States (which has veto power) was the only country not to vote for it! Why wouldn’t the United States support a cease-fire and a chance for some peace, instead promoting even more anger among Arabs toward us?
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