Many people who want to punish free speech hold up the example of how “You can’t shout Fire in a Crowded Theater,” and according to some of my friends, now many are trying to use this example to impinge upon other rights as well. Well even according to Messrs Justice Douglas, and Justice Black, the speech in which one calls fire, and the resultant acts which descend from one’s speech are inextricably linked, and it is the resultant actions for which the speaker is responsible that he is tried. Yet if there is no resulting action worthy of being tried — perhaps because there was an actual fire, or perhaps because everyone ignores you — there is nothing on which to try the person calling out “Fire!”
Liberty is a two edged sword. One edge is called freedom, the other is called responsibility. For in order to gain and preserve freedom, someone in our society must shoulder the burden of defending our way of life. Those people are the armed forces. Further, anyone who exercises their freedoms needs to own up to the consequences of their action… because if we expect other people to bail us out of our mistakes not only are we demeaning ourselves, but we are trying to remove the freedoms of others.