Essay On First Amendment

Words: 518
Pages: 3

Free speech is an important thing in our society. Our soldiers stand and fight for our freedom and with those freedoms it includes the First Amendment. The First Amendment ensures our right for freedom of speech, religion, press and peaceable assembly. Americans overuse the phrase First Amendment. Whenever we get in trouble for saying what we think or doing something that is not ethical, we often say it is our First Amendment right. This might be true, but we can not overuse it or we will ruin the good thing we have going for our country. In the story it said about the young Basketball star Toni Smith, turned away from the flag during the national anthem. This is an outrageous act of disrespect to our country. Some might think it is his right to not honor the national anthem, but I disagree. If our soldiers our going to go overseas and fight for our country and risk their lives then you can honor …show more content…
They thought it is his right whether or not to pledge to the flag and give respect for those who fight for him to have his freedom. We don’t know his reasoning behind why he doesn’t pledge to the flag. It really doesn’t matter though. If you are going to live in this great country, it is your obligation to pledge the flag and give respect to those who make this country so great. With the First Amendment you have to use your best judgement. For example, having freedom of speech doesn’t mean you can walk around saying you're going to assassinate the president. More than likely if you go around saying that you are going to get accused of terrorism and get taken to prison. It’s like the old saying, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” With the great power of freedom comes the great responsibility of knowing when to use it. You have to use your head on when to use the freedom of speech and when not to use it depending on the circumstance that you are