Week 2. pt2: The 8 values of free expression

     As an American I have always had the freedom to say whatever I wanted and do whenever I wanted to.To have the right to be able to say stuff that others may find disagreeable is very important for me in this day and age.  

   For me personally I think the most important one that relates to me the most is individual self-fulfillment or other known as freedom of speech. This one is most important to me because I think it is important to be able to express what you are feeling towards something and not get punished for doing so. 

    Throughout the last couple of decades we have seen individual self fulfillment through lots of different things. One example is when the banks closed during the great depression. When the banks first started to close rumors were spread. Lots of them saying that the banks were running out of money which made others go and try and get money out which made the crash even worse. 

    Individual self-fulfillment is not just shown in events that have happened, it can be shown in simple things in life like when you go to a job interview or even in romantic relationships. 

There are lots of court cases that have to do with freedom of speech that have happened during my time. One of the ones I wanted to point out is Elonis V. U.S. This court case is the first time that the court has accepted a position threat that happened on social media. Anthony Elonis was charged with threatening his ex wife, coworkers, a kindergarten class, and the local police. Elonis was posting things on Facebook. that sounded threatening to his ex wife and others that were important in his life. Prairie to him making the threats his wife left him right after he lost his job. After the changes to his life he started to make posts on facebook that sounded threatening. At the trial Elonis stated that the commoments on facebook were not meant to be threatening anyone.He tried to blame it on that he was making those comments based on a popular rap artist and that it was a coping with the recent events in his life. Even though others saw the comments as threatening. Elonis stills claimed that he did not mean it in a literal seans. He ended up getting convicted for five counts and had to serve 44 months in prison. 

    For me it is very important that I get to have the freedom of speech. In the times we are living in it is important that we stand up for what we believe. It is important that we tell the government when we disagree with them. I live by a quote that says “if you believe very strongly about something stand up for it” by Roy Bennett. For me this quotes means that you have to stand up and not just take other people's side because it is easier or you should never feel uncomfortable telling others what you think.