Should First Amendment Be Changed

The “Founding Father’s” made many statements that state that the basis of all other rights are protected by the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects the rights of free speech, press, assembly, petition, and press. Benjamin Franklin stated, “Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech” (Franklin, 1722). Franklin believed that the First Amendment allows people to go unpunished for expressing their thoughts and feelings into speech. The only way for someone to completely override the government would be to completely get rid of the First Amendment rights. Benjamin Franklin is making a statement that without freedom of speech, then there would be no freedom or liberty in our nation. This can be seen in many countries, like communist

In my opinion, I do not believe that the First Amendment should be changed. Many of the articles in part 3 of the reading state the fact that the First Amendment should not be changed in order to prevent hate speech or to protect people at rallies. In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial, they state, “The minute it becomes acceptable to break the law to silence one group, all others become vulnerable to attack by anyone who disagrees with them” (Editorial: Hate speech, 2017). Once the American government starts to ban hate speech, it then becomes up to the people in charge to decided what they think is hate speech. For example, breaking the law to ban hate speech could mean that the political party in charge could ban publication and speech about women’s rights, if they feel that it is hate speech. As stated in my first paragraph, Benjamin Franklin stated that once freedom of speech is taken away, so does the liberty of the nation. For the liberty of the citizens of the United States, the First Amendment should go