Regarding free speech, a certain small-town newspaper editor declared this week in his opinion column that although he supports free speech, he thinks that sometimes it's carried too far. He also feels that we take the idea that their should be separation of church and state too farm, and that freedom of speech should include freedom to speak of (or for that matter to) God during state-supported activities. I completely disagree.

I believe that free speech should include anything that does not effectively cause harm to others. For instance it should be illegal to conspire to commit a crime, or to specifically induce another to commit a crime, or to create such disturbance that public safety is threatened. That's as far as I will go. Like the editor, I have certain things that I hold sacred too, and the First Amendment is a big one. Any abridgment, including against things that most of us find offensive, is one more step back toward the days of totalitarianism. Many of you have heard of the flag-burning amendment. It's an actual amendment designed to specifically abridge the First Amendment. It's unconstitutional to make such a law, so they're actually trying to write the abridgment to the First Amendment right into the Constitution. How can patriotic Americans support such a thing? It seems they want to save the flag but burn the Constitution. Such an attitude is jingoist at best and treasonous at worst.

As for separation of church and state not being part of the Constitution, it certainly has some pretty specific language about Congress enacting no law respecting the establishment of a religion. Legal scholars have interpreted this to mean that we should not allow religion to play a role in any level in the hierarchy of our legislative bodies. It wasn't too long ago that I was naive enough to think that this was a universally accepted good idea. As soon as one religion is allowed to exert a hold over a law-making body, then differences begin to be made about how we treat members of different religions under the law. This may sound like a fine thing when your own religion holds sway, but what happens when it does not? I believe in slippery slopes, and I believe that mixing religion with politics could lead to an oligarchy where only members of one religion are treated as first class citizens. That's why we don't talk about God in an official capacity.