Dear
Readers,
These columns began on my area of America Online, called: Judaism
Today: Where Do I Fit? People anonymously
sent me E-Mail, and I began to choose one for a public response
in my Jewish E-Mail of the Week column. The column has become
quite popular and is now syndicated internationally in many
Jewish papers and websites. I hope you find they help you
as you think about the Ethics, Spirituality and Peoplehood
components of the Jewish way of Life. I welcome your
comments... see the end of the column.
Gil
PS
Teachers and others, feel free to copy my columns and forward
them or use them as you see fit. Please see the friendly
copyright notice at the end. |
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In
the aftermath of the shooting at the
LA JCC, I received much passionate
email. This tragedy touched many
nerves. The following is but one
example:
Dear
Gil:
I
feel that all hate groups that
advocate hate toward any ethnic or
religious group should not be allowed
on the Internet.
Some
of our family has disappeared in
Russia...and others in the crematoria.
The tradition of free speech laid the
first brick of the crematoria. The
Nazis, using the most modern
techniques or their day, turned the
largest number of peoples -- in the
shortest time -- into material that
was discarded in the furnaces of hate.
Well,
traditions may be difficult to let go
of, but the realties of today are
ominous. As the world and our nation's
population increases and becomes far
more dense, the very traditions of
democracy will not be recognizable in
times to come.
Now
the sacrifice should be taken in bites
about certain aspects of free speech.
ALL HATE SPEECHES should be denied the
tradition of free speech. If you were
to get on that bandwagon of expressing
this, you would pay homage to those of
our faith who died and all victims of
ethnic cleansing.
Morality
has to lead the choice. Our laws are
antiquated...it allows judges in our
courts to be pall bearers carrying
justice to the grave. As a Journalist
you have a responsibility to speak up.
In
conclusion, I say hate groups should
be banned from the computer world.
Their poison tongues must be relegated
to the darkness from which they come.
My question is, do you agree?
H
Dear
H:
I
am torn on this issue especially since
I have a degree in Journalism and have
come to cherish the right we have in
our democracy to free speech. In
addition, we Jews have been victims
when governments have allowed freedom
of speech AND when governments curtail
speech! There are no easy answers to
this issue.
Believe
me your arguments are not lost on me
because lately I have been greatly
troubled by this very issue myself
especially after the recent violent
anti-Semitism.
Before
going further, I want to say that I
too lost family in the
Holocaust...almost my Father's entire
(once huge) family was murdered. I am
well aware that freedom of speech
helped the Nazis come to power. No one
need convince me of the perils of
freedom of speech.
Though
hate and anti-Semitism on the Internet
is a new phenomenon, the questions of
whether to allow hate mongers to
freely express themselves is not. Some
years ago neo-Nazis created an uproar
by their desire to publicly display
swastikas in Skokie, Illinois, the
home of many Holocaust survivors. Just
this summer Ku Klux Klanners fought
for the right to demonstrate in
Cleveland and so on.
But
one could argue that even greater
perils exist when there is no freedom
of speech. One of the first things the
Nazis did when they came to power --
and to stay in power -- was to ban
freedom of speech. They recognized
that the free flow of information was
such a threat to their control of
society that they literally burned the
information they did not want seen.
Controlling
information was standard operating
procedure for the Nazis, the
Communists and other dictatorships
before and after them up to the
present.
So
to liken the first amendment to a
"tradition" sells this
incredible concept very short. The
First Amendment is law and not some
kind of outdated and irrational
"tradition" like a Fiddler
on a Roof. Not only is the first
amendment a well thought out law, it
has contributed to making America a
great country.
One
of the first things I learned in
Journalism law is that unfortunately,
the tools of democracy are the very
tools that can destroy her. We must
remain ever vigilant to ensure that
"the truth will out" The
only way to do that is to foster the
"marketplace of ideas" by
allowing the free flow of information
without constraint.
In
spite of all these points, like you, I
am concerned about the "realities
of today" as you put it. The
Internet allows the dissemination of
information in ways never before seen
in the history of human existence.
Perhaps this changing world in which
we live is now requiring us to put
stronger constraints on speech. I know
the arguments: "this is a
slippery slope," "once you
start banning, where do you
stop?" Still other Western
Democratic countries (like Canada and
Germany) constrain hate speech. I
think the time may have come for us to
contemplate similar legislation.
Our
Supreme Court has ruled that the First
Amendment does not give people the
freedom to falsely yell
"fire" in a crowded theater.
I think the changing realities of our
world today make screaming
"hate" and/or
"kill" on the Internet
almost as dangerous or even more so.
So
in answer to your question, yes, I
would be in favor of legislation to
curb this kind of speech on the
Internet and beyond. At a minimum, I
would like to see the subject debated
more actively around coffee tables and
legislative aisles. Maybe your letter
will prompt some of this debate.
Thanks
for writing!
Gil
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© Copyright Gil Mann
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