There are 7.4 billion people who walk this earth. Each and every one of them a mental mosaic of individual perspectives, life experiences, instinct, intellect, and power. Every sentence that has ever spilled off your lips was conceived by you, delivered by you. The transmission and collaboration of our world celebrates both the power of personal belief and the collage of opinions that can be created in a supportive environment. An environment nurtured through democracy.
Right to expression is a fundamental human right. As Thomas Jefferson wisely put it: “The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution.”
The very document that signifies the birth of America, the constitution, begins with “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” We the people. Not we the government. We the people. Our ideas come together to evolve and gain new insight and further propel our nation forward. Creating a more perfect union as a whole.
The press is the sole institution with the ability to converse with the people and the organized government, providing the transfer of knowledge, opinions, and facts from one end of America to the other. The press are protectors of the people, though exposure can be a dangerous game… “Two Reuter’s journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were detained and jailed in Myanmar on Dec.12, 2017. At the time of their arrests, they had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.”(Reuters Sept.3, 2018) These journalists had exposed this massacre of men and children, and in turn were immediately arrested and thrown in jail for seven years. This comes just as the U.N. announced the government of Myanmar should be tried for genocide against Rohingya Muslims. Although they had been arrested, these journalists sparked a conversation. Without any knowledge of this horrific massacre nobody would have been aware of what horrors had befallen these men and children. This is one of the stories with a less gruesome ending. All around the world, journalists are being gunned down. Shot in the head. Assassinated. And why? Because the press is a monumental obstacle to untethered rogue dictators.
Attempting to silence the press is equivalent to a blatant disregard of the United States Constitution. Press represents people, and to silence the press is to close the people of America off of knowledge, new ideas, and the facts of the government they themselves elected. A ruthless subversion of democracy.
Realize that the press is not our adversary, government officials who believe in a totalitarian utopia are the enemy of the press. These are the people who consistently issue death threats, order assassinations, and aggressively turn a blind eye to the facts. Many simply believing that every single supplier of their information about the world around them is indeed out to get them. As the great George Orwell put it: “In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy any writer or journalist has to face.” Ramifications of this notion cause us to segregate what we believe is the truth versus genuine facts and information provided by our press. We become uninformed and believe fact less erroneous assumptions due to our closemindedness about the world around us, effectively leading a fictitious life.
We say history repeats itself, round and round again. Someone too greedy and power hungry, Taking advantage of the people. Silencing one by one those who speak. We say silence is submission, condemn those who stand up and call us out. Call them outspoken, treasonous, lying. Labeled with the worst we can think of. And yet, every single one of us has the means to be unyielding. A platform to speak the truth. From social media to the world stage, someone will always be watching. You will be heard. We are all journalists; you have a voice. Use it.