Speaking of the First Amendment: Why Free Speech Makes Us Safer

​At the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, we saw safety barriers stamped with the words, “Free Speech Zone.” Presumably, these portable safety barriers are used to cordon off protesters into designated areas.
 
While we understand the need for “time, manner, and place” restrictions on protests, the signage on these barriers is an abomination and a travesty. It amounts to an advertisement for ignorance. There are no “free speech zones” in America. Thanks to the First Amendment, the nation itself is one giant free speech zone.
 
Why is free speech so important? Why did the Founders make sure to put it at the very beginning of the Bill of Rights? How do Americans today benefit from this legacy of the 18th-century Enlightenment?
 
Greg Lukianoff, CEO and president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), explains in a recent TED Talk the benefits that result from the “four truths” of free speech. Some of them run counter to today’s prevailing assumptions – beginning with the realization that, far from creating “safety issues,” free speech actually makes us safer. To find out why, listen to Lukianoff explain how free speech is this safety valve that keeps our society freer, fairer, and ultimately securer. In just 12 minutes, he explains to a 21st-century audience why this 18th-century principle is more essential to America than ever before.

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