Not So Free Speech

With all the talk surrounding the attacks on the Second Amendment, little attention is being paid to the First. 

Former “Teacher of the Year,” and Alabama high school football coach, Bob Grisham, has been suspended for ten days without pay for calling First Lady Michelle Obama a “big fat Gorilla.” Grisham also said that he doesn’t “like queers.” and said that what they do is an “abomination against God.” 

Here’s the audio of what Grisham said: 

I think Grisham’s comments about the First Lady are disgraceful and largely irrelevant. However, I believe that Grisham should be able to say whatever he wants to say, about whomever he wants to it. Grisham made these comments in front of a psychology class, which opens up an ethical and legal can of worms. But the issue here isn’t about the capacity in which Grisham said what he said. The issue here is about the silencing of speech some deem punishable because they don’t like it. We can either have a right to free speech, including the insensitive and shameful speech we don’t like, or not. Both cannot be true. 

P.S.

Out: endless press coverage about trillion dollar deficits. In: endless press coverage about some nobody high school football coach.