Freedom of Speech Under Attack in Denver

We hear a lot about the freedom of speech. Most people know that it is in the First Amendment to the Constitution, but few seem to know what it means. I was told in my Freshman Political science class, that we had the right to speak your mind, but not the right to say what ever you want. More and more it seems people are coming under fire for speaking their mind. I am not talking about Don Imus, his incident blurs the line; yes he was expressing an opinion, but he could have used a better choice of words to do it. I am talking about "Gunny Bob" Newman, and a recent controversy in Denver Colorado.

For those people who don't know Gunny Bob, as he is called on his show, is a night host on KOA radio, 850 AM, out of Denver Colorado. Gunny Bob is a conservative, and an former Marine. Shortly after the Ft. Dix attack was foiled, Gunny Bob said he believed that every Muslim in America should have a surgically in planted GPS they have on at all times. Gunny Bob stated he believed, in other words he was expressing an opinion. His opinion can be justified when one looks at the past terrorist threats and sees they were caused by Muslims who had over stayed their visas.

Gunny Bob's comments offended Progress Now, an activist group in Denver. This group has convinced three Denver based businesses to pull their sponsorship from Gunny Bob's show. What we as people should be concerned about is the fact that people want to shut down a man from expressing his opinion. That is dangerous because it is a violation of the first amendment. If you don't like what someone says then don't listen. If people don't listen to a talk radio show, then the show goes off air.

As Americans we need to at least tolerate other people's opinions. We don't have to agree with them, but we need to let them say it. If we want to disagree then disagree. One of the advantages of a radio talk show is you can cal the host and tell them that their an idiot. Trying to boycott someone off the air for expressing a racist opinion is a direct attack on the first amendment, if it allowed to stand, then just git rid of the Constitution.