The First Amendment Right and Freedom from Discrimination By Reverend Sharleece Bellagosi-Cardosa
Freedom of speech--our First Amendment Right-- gives us the right to speak our minds and express our opinions; however, the First Amendment Right does not give us the right to harass others for speaking differently or to discriminate against others for the way that they speak/talk. For instance, we cannot use our freedom of speech to harass and continuously criticize or incite riots against those who speak more than we like to hear them speak; and, we cannot use our freedom of speech as a reason to prevent those who speak more than we like to from his/her pursuit of happiness or to live and be free to live in this world.
To illustrate, firstly--Sunday, August 18, 2019, I witnessed two children and their mother harass a young woman for pursuing their own life. The two children and their mother ended their harassment with "and we would not have done it to you if you stop talking. REALLY. Really. When did it become alright to verbally attack someone for exercising his/her freedom of speech as long as it was not harassing them or someone? Did the constitution of the United States change while I was sleeping? I don't think it did. We still need to learn to honor others constitutional right of freedom of speech; it is our constitutional right.
Secondly, after that young woman left the building, she discovered that a vehicle similar to her vehicle had been vandalized not long after the two children and their mother left before the young woman. The mother stated, "next time do it to her vehicle." Does discrimination still have a place in the USA? Does verbal attacks still have a place in the USA related to freedom of speech? No it does not have a place. Should that young woman be ashamed or afraid to live their lives and speak as much as she wants to or do not want to without harassment and vandalism or death. Yes, she does have those rights. Those rights are all spelled out in the United States Constitution and Amendments to the Constitution. We still need to earn to stop being hateful towards others who are different.
Thirdly, after all of Sunday, August 18, 2019's occurrences, hate crimes of all types continue to be a reoccurring and never-ending issue in the United States of America. For example, It is falsely assumed that all Muslims are bad after September 11. Another example, all black people were assumed to be second class citizens during Jim Crow laws and lynched freely. And the final example, I young woman cannot live her life and be hate crime harassed and unthreatened of property damage, while talking and minding her own business in public places. They are all hate crimes that are made on different levels. We need to put a stop to this kind of this kind of behavior all together.
Consequently, stopping hate crimes is all of our responsibility. America's hate crime history continues to evolve: yesterday, it was skin color; today, it is religion; and tomorrow, it is disability. When do we stop participating and conforming to the hateful rioting and crimes? Can we choose to be better people and Christian people stopping hateful ways and crimes from entering or public building and parking; or.....? You thoughtful and dutifully be the judge or your own actions in hateful ways and crimes.
