Two stories have caught my attention in recent weeks that make me glad to have the freedom to express my thoughts, right or wrong, in this country.
In France, lawmakers have voted to make it a crime to deny that the early 20th century deaths of up to a million Armenians in Turkey was genocide. This measure still requires the approval of the French Senate and President before becoming law.
Meanwhile in Turkey, novelist Elif Shafak was acquited last month in Turkey on charges stemming from her fictional characters calling the same deaths a genocide. In Turkey, such claims can be seen as an insult to "Turkishness".Thus, theoretically, a debate on this topic held in America would be part of academic discourse. Hold the same debate in either of these two countries and one risks the penalty of law.
At the risk of sounding melodramatic, we have one of the best traditions of free speech in this country. We as Americans should firmly defend the rights of expression of even the biggest bigot who would make the most preposterous claims or voice the most outrageous opinions. Only by shining a light on these folks will the truth about them and their beliefs be found.
