Freedom of Speech

Ever since I read about that Danish cartoonist narrowly escaping his murder a couple weeks ago, I've been thinking a lot about freedom of speech.

You remember a few years back when a Danish newspaper published a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammed. Well, showing an image of Muhammed is considered extremely blasphemous among Muslims, and riots ensued. A hit was put out on this cartoonist. Luckily, the Danish government took it very seriously and protected him, including installing a saferoom with a panic button in his home. The cartoonist was home with his young granddaughter when a man broke into his house with an axe to kill him, and the cartoonist narrowly escaped to the saferoom, protected his granddaughter, and survived.

The main doubts I have about writing this blog tend to be offending some business contact who googles me or my words getting quoted out of context some day if I run for office. But this story made me realize how much I take my First Amendment rights for granted. In other places, voicing my opinions could be grounds for imprisonment. Hell, McCarthyism here in America wasn't so long ago; what if the teabaggers and the Glenn Beck conservatives get some sort of crazy power and decide to punish everyone who doesn't agree with them? It sounds extreme, but you just never know who will be running things a few years down the road.