First Amendment Lifeblood of a Free Society

This week's headlines illustrate the importance of freedom of speech to maintain a free and open society.

First off, on Monday a Virginia judge ordered the unsealing of the indictments of the former Loudoun County Public School (LCPS) superintendent and spokesman.

They were both criminally charged for their roles in covering up the campus sexual assault complaints made in October of last year by two female students against a biological male student who claimed to identify as female.

When Scott Smith, the first victim's father, attempted to get some answers and accountability at a school board meeting for his daughter's rape, he was dragged out of the room and arrested. The New York Post reported that a "video of his humiliation, his T-shirt ripped, his belly exposed, his pants pulled down, went viral globally."

Corporate media attempted to sweep the incident under the rug also.

New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg called it "The Right's Big Lie About a Sexual Assault in Virginia," and claimed it was a conservative "culture war fantasy."

And as a result of that and similar incidents, Attorney General Merrick Garland asked the FBI to investigate angry parents who speak out at school board meetings. He did it at the request of school boards that wanted them designated as domestic terrorists.

They were all proven wrong, however, when former Superintendent Scott Ziegler was indicted on one count each of false publication, prohibited conduct and of penalizing an employee for a court appearance — all misdemeanors. LCPS spokesman Wayde Byard was indicted for one count of felony perjury.

Suppression of speech on social media has also been in the news lately, especially after billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk acquired Twitter with the goal of turning it into a digital "public square," where users could freely exchange ideas.

At a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing held Tuesday, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., asked witnesses if extremist rhetoric on social media is "a problem and a threat to democracy."

All the witnesses, including Harvard Law clinical instructor and LGBT activist Alejandra Caraballo, answered "yes."

She followed that up with a second question: "Do you believe that rhetoric targeting officials with violence for carrying out their constitutional duties is a threat to democracy?"

Once again all the witnesses agreed.

Mace then displayed a blown-up photo of a tweet Caraballo posted shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

"The 6 justices who overturned Roe should never know peace again," Caraballo tweeted. "It is our civic duty to accost them every time they are in public. They are pariahs. Since women don't have their rights, these justices should never have a peaceful moment in public again."

After some back-and-forth between Mace and Caraballo about "context," the congresswoman concluded that, "It's clear to me that we have to call out the threats to our democracy emanating from where they come, whether it's the right or the left."

Caraballo's tweet has since been deleted, presumably by her.

After Musk acquired Twitter, he recruited veteran New York Times journalist Bari Weiss to sift through messages and tweets among the platform's former employees to discern how they operated and what role, if any, the government may have played censoring tweets and banning users.

Author, columnist, and TV host Mark Levin tweeted that as of Monday they'd discovered that "Twitter had become a totalitarian tool of the Left, the Democrats, federal law enforcement, and the Biden administration — that is what we have learned over these several days."

In addition to censoring messages, Twitter permanently banned accounts that management and government didn't approve of, including those of Donald Trump while he was still a sitting president, and Peter A. McCullough, MD, Master of Public Health.

McCullough often disagreed with the current administration, especially Dr. Anthony Fauci, on COVID-related issues such as mask and vaccine mandates. He also argued that lockdowns — especially for school-age children — would create more problems than they would resolve.

Both Trump and McCullough's Twitter accounts have been reinstated. While McCullough has since been proven right on how to address the pandemic, two of Trump's last tweets, here, and here, tend to disprove that he promoted the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

But perhaps the most enlightening messages Weiss uncovered came from a Twitter employee who immigrated to America from an oppressive regime and knew firsthand what government censorship was like. That employee attempted to warn the others.

"Maybe because I am from China," said the employee on Jan. 7, "I deeply understand how censorship can destroy the public conversation."

Not only can censorship destroy public conversation, it can also destroy public confidence in our institutions, both public and private.

Musk should be commended for his efforts at restoring both the conversation and the trust. And he should locate that Chinese-American employee and give her additional responsibility and a huge raise.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.