Free speech is messy

CatholicAnchor.org
Pope Francis is our first South American pope, but we forget that he is the son of Italian immigrants.

So, it wasn’t surprising to hear the pope’s statement at his impromptu press conference recently. (And I love being able to write the words “pope” and “impromptu press conference” in the same sentence.) In discussing the horrible Charlie Hebdo magazine massacre, the UK’s Daily Mail said the pope pointed at a friend, threw a pretend punch and said, “If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch.”

My husband’s grandparents were all from Italy, and just recently I heard a fourth generation member of that family respond to the ultimate insult: “You disrespected my mother.” To an Italian, disrespect to a mother is free speech used despicably, so the pope’s point is taken. People who insult things that are sacred to you are likely to incite your ire.

Some criticized the pope, saying he was justifying the massacre. False. He went on to say there was never justification for killing in the name of God. But we all have an obligation to use the right of free speech responsibly. While defending free speech, we also must condemn speech that disrespects others’ faith. But in this delicate balancing act, the weight must fall on the side of free speech.

Charlie Hebdo disrespects Islam, and everyone else’s religion. The Catholic Church in France has sued the magazine. The journal is committed to secularism in France to the extent that they made fun of the bells of Notre Dame Cathedral ringing in commemoration of the dead journalists. They once printed a cartoon of Mohammed naked. You probably don’t want to see their caricature of Pope Francis dressed for Rio. They wield free speech brutally.

But that’s why, as the cartoon editor of the New Yorker magazine reminded us, we have free speech. We don’t need free speech for the opinions we like.

Ironically, the French policeman killed by the terrorists as they left the magazine was himself a Muslim. Someone wrote on Twitter in the dead man’s voice, paraphrasing the words of Voltaire: “You have insulted my religion and my culture, but I have defended to my death your right to do so.”

I find it odd that in the birthplace of Voltaire’s famous statement, the French and other European nations have made Holocaust denial a crime.

Of course, it’s immoral and ignorant to deny the Holocaust. But wouldn’t it make more sense in a free society to rely on the truth to win out, than to censor speech? After all, if we stifle one idea today, tomorrow we may be the ones forbidden to speak.

The pope’s punch was a metaphorical one. If I were to metaphorically punch someone for saying horrible things, I’d bop the newly elected member of Nebraska’s State Board of Education who runs a conservative blog on which, for a number of years, President Obama has been referred to as a “half-breed.”

The new Republican governor of our state has asked the man to resign. The guy should remove himself from a group that oversees children’s education in our increasingly multi-cultural state.

I’d also deliver a nose bop — metaphorically, of course — to the comedian who told pedophile jokes on National Public Radio the other day. Really.

But ultimately, these people have the right to say disgusting things. Freedom is messy. We, however, should follow Pope Francis’ lead in speaking respectfully of all religions, and committing ourselves to speech that is civil.

The writer, formerly from Anchorage, now lives in Omaha, Neb.