My Freedom to Ignore

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I have to admit, I never heard of Charlie Kirk, and I never watched Jimmy Kimmel. I happily practiced my Freedom to Ignore for different reasons.

According to the amount of media attention, both seem to be very important human beings. Sadly, one lost his young life while practicing the Freedom of Speech. Another life lost in another senseless shooting, another victim of gun violence. The other man, an entertainer, a comedian (?) was muted indefinitely, taken off the air while practicing the Freedom of Speech. Both men felt they had something to say—had something to share—that’s when my Freedom to Ignore came into play.

See, that’s what always gets me. The balance between Freedom of Speech, the responsibility in using it, and the question of tolerance of what I like to call, Freedom to ignore.

I have spoken out and spoken up in my lifetime. Sometimes I was heard, often ignored. I assume some even dared to shake their heads while listening to me, which is also (still) allowed; it often goes hand-in-hand with eye rolling, which I overuse as well, so I understand.

The Freedom of Speech! It gets handed to us, by birth, but sadly, we don’t learn enough about it in school. Of course, we know that some died for it, but we don’t really know when, how, or where; we even sing about it. But overall, I think it’s fair to say that the Freedom of Speech somehow gets handed to us without a manual. We get no instructions on how to care for it or how to practice it.

So, how do you use the Freedom of Speech? I suppose it’s a bit like learning to ride a bike. You hop onto the bike and you start pedaling, first slowly and a bit fearful, but quickly you feel happy and free, until you run into a mailbox, because you forgot to look up and you didn’t see the obstacle in your way. You might lose a tooth—or two—but at that age, it doesn’t matter; they grow back, and for the time being, the toothless smile is worn like a battle scar.

You will bump against silly things like a lamppost or a mailbox once or twice, and then you learn. When riding a bike, you need to look ahead so you know in what direction you are pedaling. The big picture, the goal ahead, that’s important.

Are we still looking up when we use the Freedom of Speech? Do we still know in what direction we are pedaling?

I hope we don’t end up toothless.

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