Free Speech for Everyone?

Today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University in New York. We are so privileged and blessed to live in a country that allows provides the constitutional right to free speech for everyone. Our first amendment states that, “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 peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The First Amendment provided Columbia University President, Lee Bollinger, with the right to provide an opportunity to the President of Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to speak at the prestigious university.

Even though we have the first amendment in our country, should this same freedom to speak freely within our country be applied to leaders of other countries who don’t give their citizens this right? Should they have the opportunity to grandstand? I feel that the President of Iran should not have been given the right to speak; I was appalled that a president of such a prominent university would provide such a stage.

President Ahmadinejad has said that the Holocaust did not occur. He said, “They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets.” It is preposterous that he believes people to be so ignorant to believe this. President Ahmadinejad claims that his country is only developing nuclear capability for the purpose of nuclear power, however, how can we trust a man who wants to wipe Israel off the map? We must be concerned about a country developing nuclear power, especially if the leader of a country does not promote peace and respect for other countries and their people. Iran has been accused of helping to supply Iraqi insurgents with weapons, yet we allow the leader of Iran to speak freely in our country, while the fate of our own men and women in Iraq could depend on whether insurgents have a weapon his country supplied.

Hopefully, after President Ahmadinejad has given his speech, more people will be aware of those who rule in our world and the effect they can have on our future.

Sources:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am1
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20958137/
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/14/iran.israel/