John Whitehead's Commentary
Free Speech Monument Is Model Constitutional Teaching Tool
In the late 1790s, Charlottesville, Virginia native Thomas Jefferson found himself in the middle of the most infamous attack on free speech in American history. The Alien and Sedition Acts made it a crime for Americans to criticize their government officials. Although the Acts covered the President and Congress, they had one glaring exception--the vice president, the office held by Jefferson.
Jefferson and his friend James Madison went on the offensive, attacking the Acts as a blatant violation of free speech. They won their battle, and, to this day, the experience remains the seminal free speech moment in our history.
It is fitting, therefore, that Jefferson's hometown, Charlottesville, is now considering a one-of-a-kind free speech monument, to be placed opposite City Hall. Proposed by the locally based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, the monument would consist of a 60-foot long, seven-foot high blackboard.
Private citizens would be free to write anything they please on the board--or if they so desire, erase something someone else has written. The only catch is that city officials aren't allowed to erase anything, with the exception of periodic cleanings of the entire board.
The proposed monument has generated a ground swell of discussion--which is appropriate, given the nature of the right to be honored. Many parents, however, are concerned that their children will be exposed to vulgar comments on the board. Others worry that vandals will write on the board with spray paint instead of chalk, subjecting city maintenance workers to its endless cleaning.
But a number of local citizens have expressed their support, including Charlottesville celebrities Rita Dove, who is a poet, and the actress Sissy Spacek. Supporters say that fostering more dialogue in the community is a perfect way to support the principles behind the First Amendment. Indeed, this controversial monument seems to epitomize what free speech is all about. As Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote in the Terminiello decision in 1949:
[A] function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance....
There is little doubt that the United States Constitution is the greatest political document ever drafted and put into effect. It has stood the test of time and even weathered a Civil War. In the end, however, it is the vigilance of "we the people" that will keep the freedoms we hold so dear alive. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who believed that active involvement from the citizenry was essential to democratic government, wrote:
Those who won our independence believed ... that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people, that public discussion is a political duty and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American Government.
Thus, perhaps the best reason to support the free speech monument is for the incredible educational opportunities it presents. There is virtually no constitutional education available to junior high and high school students today. American history textbooks cover the basics, but seeing free speech in action takes the teaching to an entirely new level.
Therefore, if the monument is approved by the City Council, area teachers will have the priceless opportunity to take their students on field trips to downtown Charlottesville. There they can see free expression in action, the dialogue of an American community playing out before their eyes, in a milieu with which students everywhere are extremely familiar. Students can even participate, writing their own thoughts on the board or responding to the thoughts of others.
Constitutional commentators such as Nat Hentoff have decried the lack of education on the Bill of Rights in our nation's schools. If Charlottesville officials choose to erect the free speech monument, they will have gone a long way toward solving this problem in their own backyard.
Jefferson and his friend James Madison went on the offensive, attacking the Acts as a blatant violation of free speech. They won their battle, and, to this day, the experience remains the seminal free speech moment in our history.
It is fitting, therefore, that Jefferson's hometown, Charlottesville, is now considering a one-of-a-kind free speech monument, to be placed opposite City Hall. Proposed by the locally based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, the monument would consist of a 60-foot long, seven-foot high blackboard.
Private citizens would be free to write anything they please on the board--or if they so desire, erase something someone else has written. The only catch is that city officials aren't allowed to erase anything, with the exception of periodic cleanings of the entire board.
The proposed monument has generated a ground swell of discussion--which is appropriate, given the nature of the right to be honored. Many parents, however, are concerned that their children will be exposed to vulgar comments on the board. Others worry that vandals will write on the board with spray paint instead of chalk, subjecting city maintenance workers to its endless cleaning.
But a number of local citizens have expressed their support, including Charlottesville celebrities Rita Dove, who is a poet, and the actress Sissy Spacek. Supporters say that fostering more dialogue in the community is a perfect way to support the principles behind the First Amendment. Indeed, this controversial monument seems to epitomize what free speech is all about. As Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote in the Terminiello decision in 1949:
[A] function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance....
There is little doubt that the United States Constitution is the greatest political document ever drafted and put into effect. It has stood the test of time and even weathered a Civil War. In the end, however, it is the vigilance of "we the people" that will keep the freedoms we hold so dear alive. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who believed that active involvement from the citizenry was essential to democratic government, wrote:
Those who won our independence believed ... that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people, that public discussion is a political duty and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American Government.
Thus, perhaps the best reason to support the free speech monument is for the incredible educational opportunities it presents. There is virtually no constitutional education available to junior high and high school students today. American history textbooks cover the basics, but seeing free speech in action takes the teaching to an entirely new level.
Therefore, if the monument is approved by the City Council, area teachers will have the priceless opportunity to take their students on field trips to downtown Charlottesville. There they can see free expression in action, the dialogue of an American community playing out before their eyes, in a milieu with which students everywhere are extremely familiar. Students can even participate, writing their own thoughts on the board or responding to the thoughts of others.
Constitutional commentators such as Nat Hentoff have decried the lack of education on the Bill of Rights in our nation's schools. If Charlottesville officials choose to erect the free speech monument, they will have gone a long way toward solving this problem in their own backyard.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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