The United States prides itself on its freedoms, as promised in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: the right to worship, the right to free speech, the right of the press, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government. It has been said that these five rights distinguish the USA from other countries.
In some places, at some times, writers have been imprisoned or even executed for voicing unpopular opinions. It happened in the USSR. It happened in colonial America. The question is, could it ever happen here again? Or has it happened and we just don't recognize it?
Public debate and humiliation are the usual modern-day punishments. A book will be panned. A columnist will become the butt of jokes, and may even lose his job. But has anyone ever been imprisoned or died, here in modern-day America, for the right of written expression and the right of free speech?
Not that I know. But some are concerned. The Patriot Act looms, threatening harsher punishments. Executive orders have been signed. The threat is real.
I believe we still live in a free country, more or less. And I believe it is our right, in this country and everywhere else free expression is allowed, to write for a difference. Not just for entertainment and to make a buck. Write to leave something valuable behind and change society a little bit for the better.
That's just my opinion, of course.
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