(Disclaimer: This article is a parody and not to be taken seriously):
"You have the right to free speech
As long as you're not dumb enough to actually TRY it!"
(The Clash, "Know Your Rights")
You don't need to look very far to see places where people have abused their freedom of speech:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/18/national/main2699800.shtml
I guess I don't need to say much about this one. Fred Phelps and his group have protested funerals of every high profile death in this country, creating bitterness and tension.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313690,00.html
This news story has dominated the headlines lately as well. A teacher allows her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed and faced incarceration for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy
And lest we forget, there was the issue with the Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. All of these are glaring examples of people using free speech irresonsibly.
I guess what I think we should do, is stop allowing people free and unfettered speech. We should allow them to speak, to blog, and to write under heavily supervised conditions where their writings and speech cannot be allowed to affect the public at large. Those who choose to exercise their free speech in strictly supervised conditions should at all other times be placed under heavy guard, and monitored 24 hours a day, every day of the week every day of the year.
Every time a criminal, ever a found guilty of any felony, never gets to speak freely ever again. Nobody ought to have the ability to speak freely and do it at home, kids are taking ideas to school, and offending others.
People who have legal access are taking them and offending others. People get angry, they snap, but what they do is go out and say things that offend people, using words as bullets, and ammo, and they offend lots of people.
If we take free speech out of the equation. People can't offend other people with words.
I know that everybody is gonna be pissed about this idea, but I want to hear what you think is wrong with trying to do this.