I am thankful to live in America. We have a lot of freedoms that are outlined in the Constitution and the Amendments. Today, I want to talk about some of those freedoms and what I believe one of them ACTUALLY means.

The first Amendment to the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Let’s break that down into what that actually means.

This amendment protects the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. Specifically, it says that Congress cannot make laws that abridge this freedom; however, it’s important to ask what that actually means. From a practical standpoint, this tells the people that America will not have a state religion. It also tells that no law can be made to restrict speech of the people or the press. The final thing this Amendment declares is that citizens have the right to gather peacefully AND to let the government know when things are going poorly.

Unfortunately, through many years of history, this amendment, like so many other historical documents, have been warped and twisted to fit agendas. People will cite the First Amendment and say “Free Speech!” while saying hateful and hurtful things.

As a historian, it really upsets me when people twist history for their own purposes. This includes the Amendments and Constitution. People that do this tend to pick and choose what to remember and what to forget. While history may be written by the victors, there is so much more to understand in the events of the past. The men who wrote the Constitution lived very different lives than we do now. They had just won their independence from one of the most powerful countries of the world at that time. They had committed active treason, fought in a war on their soil, and wanted the freedom to govern themselves in their way. The laws and amendments came from their lives and what they had experienced. Near the end of the time of the colonies, newspapers were punished if they said anything disrespectful about the Church or the King of England. Citizens could also be punished if they spoke against either. A fine was the easiest punishment, while jail or forms of torture would be the more extreme punishments.

When the Framers sat down to write the laws of the land, they looked at all the ways that they had been mistreated by Britain. The majority of the Declaration of Independence is a list of crimes against George III, King of England. In the decade it took to win the war and sit down for the Constitution, they looked to their past as an example of what NOT to do. They took laws they enjoyed, and made sure that their freedoms were not restricted in the ways that they had been before independence. Their ideas–the ones that we still use today– existed directly because of mistreatments they had faced.

Here’s the point that I want to make, though: While you may be free to say anything you like, you are not free from the consequences of your words. We do not live in a vacuum. All people have thoughts and feelings. You may hurt or offend people with the things you say. They are allowed to feel that hurt. The writing of the Amendment says that Congress cannot make a law to restrict speech. However, you should be mindful of what you say to others. The men involved in creating the Amendments were never advocating that you can say mean, hurtful things and receive no consequences.

I’m involved in an interest group in Facebook. Recently, the moderators changed the rules, specifically directed towards language (I’m talking within the last day). The amount of people that have posted that they were upset about the rule changes is wild. These people are not required to stay in this group! They have the freedom to leave at any time. Instead, they chose to complain over what is a minor rule. And even worse, some of them are citing this as a violation of the First Amendment! An organization or a group is allowed to impose any restrictions they feel are necessary. And in this instance, it’s not even about the words said to another person. But they didn’t want to promote harmful ideas or places.

I teach in a very urban school district. I have seen a lot of fights in my short time as a teacher. Some of these fights have started because of words. While I do not advocate for violence as a way to solve problems, I can understand the students’ positions. Words have the potential to be harmful or helpful. Saying mean things to someone without expecting a consequence is foolish and ignorant. Freedom of speech will never equate to hateful speech.

The Constitution is so important, and the Amendments are important too. However, they should be taken as they really are, not as people want to be. Our government has been around and unchanged for a relatively long time (over 200 years). In fact, the United States has one of the oldest constitutions that are still in existence today. Culture changes, society changes, and other changes happen throughout history. The United States Constitution has had twenty-seven approved amendments. That works out to 1 Amendment every 9 years. My life was very different nine years ago. Yes, there are other acts of government that have been passed in that time; however, the core of our government is still the same as it was in the 1700s. We still rely on the same documents.