Free speech: Use it — or you risk losing it

Fri, Feb. 04, 2005

Mercury News Editorial

The First Amendment is a muscle that must be used, or it will become flabby. A survey of high school students by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation reveals a frail Constitution: Kids are weak in knowledge of their rights.

73 percent said they didn’t know how they felt about the First Amendment or took freedom of speech and the press for granted.

More than a third (35 percent) thought that the First Amendment goes too far in protecting rights.

One in six students indicated that people shouldn’t be allowed to express unpopular opinions.

Only half said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

The apathy is alarming. Those who don’t understand the First Amendment are certainly less inclined to exercise it, and they’ll be less skeptical and more easily conned by government officials who want to twist and limit it.

MercuryNews.com | 02/04/2005 | Free speech: Use it — or you risk losing it