I have a T-shirt that I was given while doing some work with the American Civil Liberties Union this past summer. It’s a dark navy blue color, incredibly soft, and has a minimalist illustration printed over lettering that reads “We the People." I’m convinced this shirt is cursed. Every time I’ve ever worn it, without exception, at least one person has tried to explain the concept of freedom of speech to me. This is curious, of course, considering that it’s a shirt clearly from the ACLU and would typically imply that I know at least a little about free speech. More curious still is the fact that not a single person who has done so has been close to correct in their explanation.
If it had been a single incident, I would have been inclined to chalk it off to the miseducation of a sole person, yet every time I wear this shirt I’m a little less certain. Now, I don’t expect my peers to be serious constitutional scholars— I’m certainly not one — but lacking basic knowledge of the very first provision of the Bill of Rights is a serious concern. The First Amendment exists for one purpose and one purpose only: to prohibit government interference in the free exchange of thoughts and ideas. It does not, as one friend said, apply to private individuals in cases like political correctness. If the first amendment, and by extension the Bill of Rights itself, exists to protect citizens from government action, a collective misunderstanding of it is exceedingly dangerous. Someone who misunderstands it forfeits their own protection.
Citizens and their immigrant counterparts (who, by the way, hold the same constitutional protections) must be aware of their rights in order to be able to exercise them at all. A collective misunderstanding makes us all a little less free.
The first time anyone has ever explained the First Amendment to me in a sense beyond saying it provides for “freedom of speech” was last summer at that ACLU workshop. That’s abysmal. I have, for most of my life, attended public schools in one of the best school districts in the state of Georgia, yet not one of them has properly educated me in my own civil liberties. The first time I ever even read the Bill of Rights in class was this year in AP Government, a national college-level course. What of the kids who don’t take AP Government? Civics education in elementary, middle, and high schools must do better than this.
I realize the Constitution doesn’t excite students. I realize the text can confuse younger students. I also realize that students need to learn about it, need to be taught its importance. America prides itself as a democracy, but it cannot maintain that ideal if we continue to fail to educate our people in how democracy functions and how the Bill of Rights kills homegrown tyranny each and every day. We the People of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect Union, must break from ignorance as our forefathers broke from tyranny so many years ago.
