We live in a world where we have to be careful on what we say or do because it might offend others. Whenever someone wants to express their selves in a non-violent manner via speaking out on social media or even in person, that person gets criticized by society and is viewed as a terrible person. A recent example of this are the protests that some NFL players are doing, by sitting or kneeling during the National Anthem, which was started by Colin Kaepernick. While I do not agree with such protests because I think the method should have been done more professionally, I understand that in America, he and other protestors have the right to a freedom of speech, which for this example is to figuratively stand up against the injustices to the African American community. Such protests have been a factor as to why NFL viewership has decreased and I think that is insane to stop watching a sport that is loved by many Americans just because someone wants to fight for what they believe in. What makes this country great is that we have this right to do so, but it is terrible that people get ridiculed on for what they believe in. He even received death threats and fans from numerous stadiums have used a racially charged slur at him.
Former NFL tight end and Hall of Famer, Mike Ditka was removed from the ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown crew due to his displeasure with Obama’s presidency. I am pretty neutral when it comes to President Obama and I think it’s unreasonable to remove someone who I thought was a great asset on the ESPN segment just because he asserted that President Obama was terrible. To quote Randy Marsh from South Park, “I thought this was America.” Everyone has an opinion and not everyone can give a favorable review of our Commander and Chief. People shouldn’t lose their jobs over an opinion.
To move on to the more controversial topic with the election that just happened, I have seen on numerous occasions that people have stated that they will remove people from their Facebook friends or "unfollow" them on Twitter just because that person has stated that he or she voted for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. In my opinion, it’s immature to do so. Are you really going to remove that person from your social media life or even from real life just because he or she had voted for or supports the Presidential candidate that you dislike? Give me a break, let that individual exercise his or hers own right to vote, there’s no point of getting into heated political arguments because that person will more than likely not change their mind. I strongly dislike both candidates for my own personal reasons. Most of my friends and family members have voted for either one of these two candidates and I’m not going to threaten to lose contact with them over some vote because I know at the end of the day, they are still supporters of me as I would be with them.
Another thing that I have been seeing on social media is the amount of people that have stolen or vandalized Trump/Pence signs which is unnecessary. I have been living on the Eastern Shore for my entire life, so it doesn’t surprise me that I see these signs frequently when I’m driving around my community and while I get slightly annoyed by constantly seeing these signs, I’m not going to waste my time to steal or damage them because it’s a non-violent expression, a freedom of speech. Like all amendments in the Constitution, this amendment obviously should have its limitations, such as not saying anything mean towards people via racial or homophobic or sexist slurs or anything that suggests negativity or violence but based on what I have seen recently, it appears that the freedom of speech itself is no longer in existence.
