Friday, February 17, 2006

The Essence of American Liberty

"My job is not to bring people together," Lindsay said. "My job is to teach history. History is not pleasant in many cases, and I made it very clear in class that this is America and you all have the right to offend but you do not have the right to not be offended."

This quote comes from Prof. James Lindsay of CSU, who was commenting on his decision to show copies of the Mohammed cartoons to his Islamic history class.

The right to offend, but not the right to not be offended.

I like that. It sums up the essence of our exceptional notion of free speech.

hat tip: Volokh Conspiracy

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