The United States Constitution guarantees all of us, as American citizens, the right to freedom of speech.

We are allowed to speak our minds about anything save for something that is considered to be clear and present danger words that threaten another person. This right is not just a small part of the document, but one of the first key points of the Bill of Rights. Being one of the pillars of American society, freedom of speech allows the people to express themselves openly, bettering the country by having a diverse plethora of ideas and thoughts rather than a constricted public mindset. The framers of the Constitution our founding fathers stated that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech and yet people and organizations such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) censor the television, radio, and Internet every single day. This censorship is quite an odd phenomenon considering the fact that the FCC is an independent agency of the United States government a government sworn to protect freedom of speech in every way. The FCC claims that the public interest is best served by permitting free expression of views, but time and time again they have prevented speech that is un-American because it allegedly endangers the government, its institutions, or its people. Content that is offensive is censored as well, but who is to say what is offensive and what is not? None of the words or viewpoints in any form of media can actually harm anybody, or anything. It is only when action is taken that a change is introduced, and said action will only occur if the words being spoken are true to a large proportion of the people. Censorship only limits the capacity of society to improve. For instance, think about the American music industry and how differently it may be today if the Beatles were taken off the radio because they were too un-American. Or perhaps imagine if the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. were repressed because they broke a long-standing, albeit terrible, American institution. The volume and rate at which things are censored has increased in the past few decades. Our government is so concerned with its own image that it is willing to restrict our thoughts, a blatant violation of our constitutional rights. What future generations would be reduced to if this continues to happen is a mass of fearful and uninspired drones. To continue to grow and thrive we must not spend our time on what is politically correct or offensive, but on what is important to the people. The only way to do that is to allow all opinions and ideas to be shared freely. Otherwise, a limited and restricted populace will be hesitant to speak its mind and slow the improvement and momentum of knowledge and intellectual thought. Freedom of speech is one of the most important of the fundamental rights in American society. Without it, we wouldnt even have an American society.