When Freedom Goes Too Far

A facebook friend has a plea posted to stop the attack on the wikileaks people. Her reasoning (and that of the many others who are signing up for the page) is that attacking wikileaks is attacking freedom of speech. As dear as this friend is to me, I was pretty turned off by the fact that there is a groundswell out there of people who are championing a man who has put other lives in danger.

Much of the stuff leaked would not do that, but some of it does, and if one life is put on the line because of this man's giant ego trip, then I feel freedom has gone too far.

I most definitely believe in freedom of speech. To writers and TV journalists, it probably takes a jump high on the list of important things in life. Words, after all, are their livelihood, and they want to be free to say what they believe. But rest assured, if some TV journalist exposed secrets of a country which put lives in danger, he'd be off the air in a hurry.

Freedom of speech is one of our rights, but we need to balance it with some common sense. I mean that in all our writing, not just referring to Julian Assange. Common sense seems to be seen less and less in today's world. People on the left want it all their way and people on the right the same. I see selfishness in places where common sense should prevail. I see ego trips where humility would be the better choice.

I have the right to freely express my opinion, which I've just done here, but I also have the responsibility to not put others in danger when I exercise my right to free speech. And my friend has the right to exercise her opinion defending Julian Assange's attack on the world. We all have that right, but we also have the right to disagree.