Free speech is one of the many amazing rights we protected by the United States Constitution. However, people in this country have decided to take the First Amendment into their own hands.

I do not care what people think about my opinion. The beauty of free speech is that we can all agree or we can disagree. While you can disagree with me all you want, there is a line.

My generation of millennials and younger generations have tried to redefine speech. However, their version of outright childproof speech is not what free speech is meant to be.

First, just because you are “offended” by what I have to say, does not mean I can’t say it. You certainly cannot violently attack people you do not agree with. Chaplinsky V. New Hampshire (1942) stated that some forms of expression that do not convey ideas, but obscenity and “fighting words” are not protected.

Specifically, this means words that “inflict injury or intend to incite immediate breach of the peace.” Therefore, those who chant about frying police officers like bacon are not protected by the First Amendment.

With that, Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) restated that speech is not protected when it is “directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action” and/or “likely to incite or produce such action." So all of you snowflakes who threaten and incite violence towards those with whom you have a different opinion, then demand your “safe space,” your speech is not protected.

However, in Cohen v. California (1971) the court protected the expression of emotion and the expression of ideas. The key here is that there was no evidence the expression in question would provoke people into physical action.

Speaking of “safe spaces,” if we look at Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico by Pico (1982) proves why so many see “safe spaces” as insanity. A library wanted to censor what books were available in the library due to their own personal beliefs. The court held, “Centers for voluntary inquiry and the dissemination of information and ideas, school libraries enjoy a special affinity with the rights of free speech and press.” Meaning plain and simple, they could not restrict the availability of content just because they personally didn’t agree with it.

My point is that the beauty of free speech is to be able to have an opinion that is your own. We have suddenly lost the power of debate. A very close friend and I were recently interviewed by a writer at Glamour Magazine. We discussed that it is not impossible to be friends even though I’m a conservative and she is a liberal. Two girls who have radically different political ideologies and who are extremely close friends should not be news. We both just simply ask each other why we believe one way versus the other. The best thing that I did for myself was never hold back in a debate even though I would always be the only conservative. You will never truly know what you believe and why unless you understand what you don’t believe and why.

So use the rights you are given and have a conversation, not a brawl.