During the last three weeks of being in Media, Law, and Literacy we have learned all about our rights as humans residing in the United States of America. When I personally think of American rights and freedoms I automatically think of The First Amendment, which states, “ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.( constitution.congress.gov). My personal definition of the First Amendment is that everyone residing or living in the United States has every right to use their voice whether that be written or spoken to express how they are feeling and to stand up for what they believe in. As someone who was not born in the United States I really understand how much of a gift or privilege the First Amendment is and how we should really use it to our advantage and not to use it to hurt people or spread hate or violence. In class we also talked about the eight values of expression which are Marketplace Of Ideas, Participation In Self government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check of Government Power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent. These are all so important but the one that stood out to me the most personally was Promote Tolerance
Promote Tolerance really stood out to me out of the eight values of expression as, “ been argued that freedom of speech, especially through our practice of extending protection to speech that we find hateful or personally upsetting, teaches us to become more tolerant in other aspects of life.”( medlawlit blog quote). In my mind the first thing that came to my mind when reading that off the Media Law and Lit blog was all the protests I have seen in the news growing up. One thing about this generation is we are not afraid to use our voice to stand up for what we believe in. Unfortunately within the last few years the United States has been a divided country and that has led to a lot of negativity and protests. That being said, due to the First Amendment it gets complicated as while we all have the right to express anger or be upset with a government decision we do not have the right to start and cause violence. It upsets me that for some people the first and only thing that will fix a problem is to cause violence which in reality does not take you anywhere being civil and using your voice for good is what takes you far in life.
The First Amendment is a very important United States Of America value and principle. I always hope that it is used for good and not violence. Violence is never the answer but we should still remain to stand up for what we believe in. We are all very lucky we have the right to the First Amendment.
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