I submit 10 examples of our failures to protect free speech

ACHTUNG: This is not a fair and balanced article. It is an editorial by the editor.

“You’re free to speak your mind my friend
As long as you agree with me
Don’t criticize the father land
Or those who shape your destiny
‘Cause if you do
You’ll lose your job your mind and all the friends you knew
We’ll send out all our boys in blue
They’ll find a way to silence you

“But there’s nothing you and I can do
You and I are only two
What’s right and wrong is hard to say
Forget about it for today
We’ll stick our heads into the sand
Just pretend that all is grand
Then hope that everything turns out ok.” — Steppenwolf, “The Ostrich,” 1968

Colin Kaepernick, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, The Dixie Chicks, Edward Snowden, Eugene V. Debs, Dr. Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Daniel Ellsburg, Bill Maher.

These 10 people or entities who paid a hefty price for telling the truth or taking an unpopular position exercising free speech. Despite our often professed love of freedom, particularly the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, they’re good examples of the assertion that “If you don’t have the freedom to offend, you don’t really have freedom of speech.”

Yet President Donald Trump last Friday used that right of free speech to defend his unflattering comments about Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch while she was testifying in the impeachment hearings.

While it’s true that you won’t get arrested for expressing an unpopular opinion, the political, social and corporate powers can make your life miserable in other ways if you step out of line.

The survey of these 10 examples:

• Colin Kaepernick — He took an unpopular stand by taking a knee during the national anthem. After he did that, he was drummed out of the NFL, despite being the starting quarterback for San Francisco in the Super Bowl of 2012. He was accused of disrespecting the national anthem and the flag. He was actually protesting mistreatment of blacks.
• Julian Assange — I understand he’s an unpleasant sort, but I have yet to see where what he did has breached our security as a nation. He provided us with really controversial material, but is incarcerated and the U.S. really wants to have him extradited.
• Chelsea Manning — This is very similar. A soldier who downloaded embarrassing material to Wikileaks that no one has refuted and there has been no evidence it harmed U.S. efforts in the Middle East. Manning spent a great deal of time in prison before being pardoned and she was jailed for not complying with a subpoena, an offense that’s getting commonplace of late without consequences.
• The Dixie Chicks — Their leader made a very unpopular comment about then-President George W. Bush in 2004 and basically faced the same kind of blacklisting Kaepernick has endured. Natalie Mains used her right of free speech and she and her colleagues have absorbed economic and social consequences.
• Edward Snowden — This guy had the temerity to tell us the truth about government surveillance of American citizens without our knowledge. No one has proved otherwise, yet he is a perennial prisoner in Russia. If he sets foot on U.S. soil, he will be arrested.
• Eugene V. Debs — America’s most famous socialist until Bernie Sanders came along, he was imprisoned by Democrat President Woodrow Wilson because of his vocal opposition to World War I.
• Dr. Martin Luther King — Easily the most famous in this group, he was constantly harassed, surveilled and maligned by no less than FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who once referred to him as the most dangerous man in America.
• John Lennon, the popular ex-Beatle also was heavily examined and hounded by Hoover, whose main goal was get enough dirt on him to have him deported for his unorthodox views and songs like “Power to the People” and “Imagine.”
• Daniel Ellsberg — A forerunner to Snowden and Manning, he was maligned, surveilled and arrested for releasing the Pentagon Papers in the Vietnam era.
• Bill Maher — The comedian was fired from his network show “Politically Incorrect,” for insisting the 19 terrorists on the planes Sept. 11, 2001, were not cowards, though they were crazy zealots.

These days I hear a great deal about colleges refusing to allow certain speakers because of right-wing views. But these speakers are not arrested or fired.

I believe eventually we have to come to grips with the few instances in which free speech is not protected, such as yelling “fire!” in a crowded theater or inciting people to commit violence against others.

Otherwise, we Americans do a lousy job of putting our money where our mouths are in accepting public opinions with which we do not agree.

I suggest we take a cue from Voltaire, who once said: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

That’s protecting freedom of speech.