Teeing Off: Use It or Lose It

Courtesy of The Henry Rollins Show

Have you ever heard someone remark that "if I said what was really on my mind..."? I always wondered, what the fuck is holding them back?

And when they finally do let loose and feel all the better for it, they're never the same. It's good for you. It's essential and, note to you pseudo-patriots out there, it is quintessentially American. Can't handle it? I don't know what to tell you besides speak up!

When you exercise your freedom of speech, you shed your fear and your tolerance for bullshit plummets. The key word here is exercise. If you don't use it, you will lose it. When you submit, when you stop standing up for your beliefs then you become an architect of the end and you benefit those who work to further limit you. They factor in that there are millions who will not question, who will not speak their mind, who will "go with the flow" and basically submit to that which they wrongly think they are powerless to change.

What if, all those people stood up and let their voices be heard? What if? We do our level best to use this show as a platform to let voices, attitudes and ideas be expressed and heard, from me shooting my mouth off, to the interviews we conduct to the bands who come on here and do exactly what they want. Viewers are free to draw their own conclusions and believe me, I hear all about it. Fair enough. That's what it's all about.

I beg you to see yourselves as the defenders of free speech by being the users of free speech. Your silence is death. Free speech, if you want it, you better grab it, and don't let go.

-- Henry Rollins

Comments

[realitytrumpsbull]

Free speech is an open threat to authoritarians, hence the existence of the Tipper Gores that would squash it. Given the choice, though, between government-approved MUZAK-grade politically correct pabulum and the Hard Stuff, the everclear of people's unvarnished views, I'll go with the blinding, stinging, bathtub gin of debilitating Truth any day of the week.

[rektruax]

I've always used freedom of speech as a litmus test for the real tolerance of freedom. It's easy to tolerate what folks do in private because of the old "out of sight, out of mind" idea, but when real opposition is right there in your face... Well, it certainly tests the liberal notion of many.

Holocaust deniers are a good example. We know the pain caused open denial, but is society setting a bad precedent by trying to stop it? While I personally have been confronted by deniers and skin heads and other aryan organizations, (all in Michigan I might add) I try to keep in mind all the things that society would probably want to put me away for thinking and talking about.

This is so in all areas of free speech. The very things one feels passionately about, may well be the same things that someone else would lock you up for saying.

I guess what I'm saying here is be careful what you wish for, and remember that if you're truly passionate about free speech, you've got to accept the people who fly confederate flags, or burn crosses (on their own property of course) as much as you accept those who agree with you. Fight by all means. Argue to the best of your debating skill, but the moment you say of think "that kinda talk should be banned", your faith in free speech is over.

[GhostofBillHicks]

Thanks Henry,I have a "FUCK BUSH" sticker on my car.A few months ago I had a cop pull me over and write me a ticket for "obscene sticker".I refused to sign the ticket,then I went straight home wrote the city telling them "I will not be paying this ticket and I will be getting in touch with the ACLU",which I did,they[ACLU] "wanted" it bad.But the city decided they didn't want any,so NO RECORD OF THE TICKET EXIST. "RIGHT MAKES MIGHT"
GIVEM'HELL HENRY!DON'T GIVEM' AN INCH!
*Oh yeah,liked your interveiw with Gore Vidal*

[suburbanbushwacker]

as William Burroughs so shrewdly pointed out its a phenomena called 'the cop in your head'.....­....
Fight the power

[Chuckwheat]

"I don't want to go there" is the usual excuse for letting shit slide.

[mommadona]

Good observation.

[mommadona]

The utterance of an idea thru the use of sounds/wor­ds/phrases is the ultimate proof of free will for a human.

This is very simple and very profound.

EVERY idea is from the INDIVIDUAL soul conceiving it.

To put it in perspective:
http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/II/II_23.htm
We find in the Bible the words: 'In the beginning was the word, and the Word was God,' and we also find that the Word is Light, and that when that light dawned the whole creation manifested. These are not only religious verses; to the mystic or seer the deepest revelation is contained in them.

The first phrase conveys to us that if anything exists that we can express, we can express it only by what we term 'Word'. The second phrase explains another aspect of this mystery, which is that to enable the soul, surrounded by the darkness of this world of illusion, to come to the light, first the word was necessary. This means that the original Spirit was concealed in the mystery of the word, and that in in the mystery of the word, the mystery of the spirit was to be found.

Words are best chosen wisely, with clarity and bravery...­.

"I AM MAD AS HELL, AND I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANY MORE".

[snaggster]

Yep, if people don't start acting like the US is a free speech zone, the politicians will make sure that the free speech zones are in cages. No wait! That already happened.

[Spiritgeek]

Sadly, most people are lemmings that will follow the crowd until it is to late, or nearly that. As a race, human, we tend to follow the crowd until someone speaks up and others will then start to follow, but it sometimes takes amazing amounts of courage to step out on that branch alone.

I also blame such silliness as "Political Correctness" which really isn't much more than socialized lying. Somewhere people began to give up Free Speech for this PC BS! PC is based upon a fantasy that those who are listening have a "right" not to hear anything that might disturb them, what a load of manure! There are many times when what you NEED to hear is going to upset you to outright piss you off, but if it is true and you need it, wouldn't you rather hear the truth or do you want to be the King with no clothes since no one dares tell you otherwise?

If you want to be lied to so that you feel good about making an ass out of yourself, fine. But, like the Bible says, "the TRUTH will set you free" and freedom is glorious.

[Chuckwheat]

"I don't want to go there" is the usual excuse for not speaking up & out.

[MelFamy]

Bravo, Mr.Rollins­!
However, in exercising my forthrightedness, I have now had comments removed from the posts of three different people. In each case, I was disagreeing with the poster, but in a respectful manner. I have written to HuffPo about the matter, but have yet to receive a reply. One the posters was Paul Krassner, who personally assured that he would never remove a comment, and I believe him. My question to you is, do you, as a poster, have the power to remove comments from your own post? And if a Huffpo censor does remove a comment from your post, are you informed? I am distressed by this, as I would have never expected such treatment from a site with Ms. Huffington's name attached. Thanks for reading this, assuming that they let you.

[jesusquintana]

Me too. Trying to get a comment on one of Alan Dershowitz's posts is next to impossible.

[PaulGaskin]

I've had some of my comments not published, but I don't particularly care because my best comments seem to always make it through.

There's two editorial layers - Huffington Post editors and the blogger who writes a particular article. Both of them retain the right to publish a comment or not.

For a group-blog, I think a "return-to-sender" feature would be good for comments which are not published. It seems reasonable just to email the rejected comment to the author so they can have it for their own site.

[MelFamy]

Thanks for the reply. For a blogger to remove a post because it does not conform to his views is just plain sad. I like your suggestion, but I have taken to ctrl c-ing my comments before posting.

[PaulGaskin]

Henry, I think I know what is holding most people back.

People are afraid that if they speak out, they'll be hung out to dry by their so-called representatives who won't raise their voice in anger against Bush.

I guess our so-called representatives are too busy polishing Bush's jack-boots with their tongues to speak for us.

Also, how about the Pat Tillman shooting investigation? Are they going to let the AWOL, draft-dodging, veterans benefit cutting, Betrayer in Chief use "executive privilege" to squash the investigation?

[amy0206]

Except that most of us don't have that much to lose if we do speak out. Phone calls, emails, and letters to the editor aren't going to lead to jail. Yet. But if we don't tell our politicians to protect our Constitutional rights, THEY will cow to the pressure from the lunatic fringe on the Right and their enablers in the media.

The problem is that not enough people give a shit. They'll mutter under their breaths and complain to their friends about the war, Pat Tillman, the national debt, etc, but they aren't demanding impeachment. And far too many are willing to go along with the government on wiretapping, CIA secret prisons and the like because they figure that is what is keeping them safe.

Cowardice, ignorance and apathy are what is keeping the majority of Americans are rising up. Not to say that there isn't fascism in everyday America, and not to say that there can't be reprisals for speaking out. But we aren't at the point where we should be afraid of our own representatives.

They work for us, even if too many people forget that. It's just too bad that we have the government we deserve right now. And it's because we aren't speaking out.

Great diary, Henry!