Dear Editors (Op-Ed): 

   What John Rocker and Bid Selig say or do to each other is a matter of conduct, and invoking Constitutional free speech as a guide is in total error.  Had the nation's founders proclaimed a freedom of speaking they would have been thought idiots.

   The words "the freedom of speech" mean just what they meant in the 1689 British bill of rights, namely speech-making and debating in Parliament where, incidentally, speaking and other conduct is consensually regulated.

   There is no "freedom" or "right" in the Constitution or anywhere else to offend, insult, or willy-nilly inflict sounds or sights on another.  There is not even a right to another's attention; civility demands that one first ask.

The speech that is free, absolutely, is nothing more than traditional democratic process  --  heads getting together discussing the making of rules applicable to everyone.  The relationship of each American citizen to government is that of a part to the whole.

   Our Bill of Rights deals with rights against government, not against one's fellow citizens.   It's time to stop wallowing in error and confusion.

Respectfully,

Louis Worth Jones
 
 

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