Freedom From Offensive Speech

As a society of men we have learned to take measures to protect ourselves against many things. Those who commit theft or violence we endeavor to isolate. Against the spread of communicable diseases, we impose quarantine. Against those responsible for other hazards to public health or safety, we invoke injunctions and penalties. But there are some things against which we have not been so effective in protecting ourselvesone of which is offensive speech. The utterance of indecent or obscene stories or of foul language leaves impressions which scar the minds of those who hear them. If we were to spread poison where people were likely to be exposed or injured by it, we would expect severe penalties. But those who befoul the moral and intellectual atmosphere with offensive utterances are polluting the air as surely as though they were to spread a physical poison. Sometimes we think it won’t hurt us to be exposed to foul mental fare. But the impressions left upon our minds persist, and are often recalled under circumstances beyond our control. There are many situations in which people are thrown together, sometimes in close quarters, under conditions of necessity or duty, when the speech of one, offensive or not, is heard by all. And under such conditions, offensive speech would seem to be even more offensive than when a listener could walk away from it. The defacement of a piece of property or a work of art is a punishable crime. But how much more despicable is the deliberate defacing and befouling of the mind of man, than which there is no greater work of God, no greater creation. Of course, we cannot isolate ourselves from life. As long as we live with others, we shall see and hear things which are not to our liking and which are not of our choosing. But let no man who deliberately smears his thoughts, or the thoughts of others, take any comfort in the supposed assurance that he or anyone else can forget what he wants to forget, when he wants to forget. There is no such easy erasing. But there are many who would give much to forget some of the things they have seen or heard. Surely it would seem that our need to protect ourselves from mental infection is at least as great as our need for protection against physical hazards. Freedom of speech is a glorious right and privilegebut indecent speech is an abuse of freedom.