The White House North Portico is lit in red, white and blue lights Saturday evening, July 4, 2020, during the Salute to America 2020, Fourth of July celebration. (Official White House photo by Katie Ricks)
America's top leaders from a wide range of interests across the country have joined to create and sign the "Philadelphia Statement," an expression of concern over the move to eliminate free speech.
And they are inviting others to sign it too.
So far, nearly 7,000 people have, including Robert George of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Princeton, Ayaan Hirsi Ali of the Hoover Institution, Wilfred McClay of the University of Oklahoma, Rev. Charles Chaput, archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia, and Thomas Farr of the Religious Freedom institute.
The public statement affirms the the necessity of free speech and civil discourse, while denouncing cancel culture, "hate speech" labeling, and other forms of "ideological blacklisting."
Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ is promoting it, and the site noted the support from the National Religious Broadcasters, which issued a statement, "Freedom of expression is in crisis. Truly open discourse—the debates, exchange of ideas, and arguments on which the health and flourishing of a democratic republic crucially depend—is increasingly rare. Ideologues demonize opponents to block debates on important issues and to silence people with whom they disagree."
The NRB asks, "Is this the country we want? Surely not."
The statement highlights the need for America to be a nation where people "of many different faiths, philosophies, and persuasions can speak their minds and honor their deepest convictions without fear of punishment and retaliation."
It also recognizes that free speech also does not include "defamation, obscenity, intimidation and threats, and incitement to violence."
However, "hate speech" is not among them as it is difficult to define and "is often used by those wielding political, economic, or cultural power to silence dissenting voices," the CHQ said.
Also, "offensive," "wrong" and "harmful" content isn't clear.
"These policies and regulations assume that we as citizens are unable to think for ourselves and to make independent judgments,” reads the statement. “Instead of teaching us to engage, they foster conformism ('groupthink') and train us to respond to intellectual challenges with one or another form of censorship."
The drafters of the statement explained the goal is that it will be a catalyst for a new ideologically diverse movement in a culture where the "open exchange of ideas is universally respected."
Part of the statement itself;
Social Media mobs. Cancel culture. Campus speech policing. These are all part of life in today’s America. Freedom of expression is in crisis. Truly open discourse—the debates, exchange of ideas, and arguments on which the health and flourishing of a democratic republic crucially depend—is increasingly rare. Ideologues demonize opponents to block debates on important issues and to silence people with whom they disagree.
We must ask ourselves: Is this the country we want? Surely not. We want—and to be true to ourselves we need—to be a nation in which we and our fellow citizens of many different faiths, philosophies, and persuasions can speak their minds and honor their deepest convictions without fear of punishment and retaliation.
It explains America's liberty and happiness depend on a public culture that includes both freedom and civility.
Disagreements can be robust, even fierce, it explains, but people still must "treat each other as human beings."
It quotes Frederick Douglass, who said in 1860, "Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist."
Nowadays, "blacklisting" is coming and companies have "hate-speech" policies that censor much thought.
"Similarly, colleges and universities are imposing speech regulations to make students 'safe,' not from physical harm, but from challenges to campus orthodoxy."
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