<strong>To the editor:</strong>

Most of us are glad that some high school pupils are sensitive to the feelings of others. Who would be in favor of insensitivity? This sensitivity they have expressed by asking the school board to establish policies in relation to so-called “hate speech.”

At the same time, it would be a great pity if the wonderful achievements of the “We the People” program in the Brown County Schools over the past few years were now all to be canceled by the concern for sensitivity. “We the People” is designed to teach children and youth about the origin and nature of our free society.

Schools, of course, exist mainly to teach. Teaching courtesy and consideration for other people is or should be an important part of what they do. Helping students understand the effect of what they say on other people is a valuable part of their education.

But everyone, including students and teachers, should remember this blunt fact: Hate speech is a constitutionally protected right! Freedom of speech does not mean freedom for speech most of us find acceptable. Freedom of speech means, in the words of a great judge of an earlier generation, “freedom for the thought we hate.”

Hate — or hateful — speech can be met with argument, with explanation, with expressions of outrage. But in America, it should never be met with punishment. If I can punish the speech I find offensive today, someone can punish my speech tomorrow if she decides it offends her. Freedom of speech means that speech we find offensive is nonetheless free. Anything else is the “freedom” of China, which is no freedom at all.

Respectfully,
<p style="text-align: right"><strong>Daniel C. Reuter, Nashville</strong></p>