This blog post is a quote, the whole quote (almost), and (almost) nothing but the quote.

It is a fictional Presidential speech, but the only one such included in an academic archive of Presidential speeches. So, some people think it’s got serious game.

I’m simply putting it on the table for your consideration, under circumstances in which the patience of one part of this Borough’s public with the legal limits of free speech, and the patience of another part for the impatience of the first, are both being tested.

“America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, ‘You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.

“’You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.

Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.’”


Posted by
G.E. “Skip” Lawrence