Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection.
Interpretation
Free speech safeguards the expression of controversial ideas, not just dull or universally accepted opinions.
Colin Powell's quote emphasizes the essence of free speech as a shield for not only popular or easy-to-accept views but also for those that challenge the status quo or provoke thought. It suggests that the true test of free speech is its capacity to protect the most controversial and outlandish expressions, as these are often the ideas that require the strongest defense against censorship or societal pushback.
In practice
In a debate on social media about censorship, one might quote Powell to emphasize that free speech must embrace all forms of expression.
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. I am talking about a gung-ho attitude that says 'we can change things here, we can achieve awesome goals, we can be the best. 'Spare me the grim litany of the 'realist;' give me the unrealistic aspirations of the optimist any day.
One of the fondest expressions around is that we can't be the world's policeman. But guess who gets called when suddenly someone needs a cop.
Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.
If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.
High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it's not evenly distributed.
As I've thought about gay marriage, I don't see any reason not to say that [couples] should be able to get married.
There's a very committed effort to convert the US into something resembling a Third World society, where a few people have enormous wealth and a lot of others have no security.
Jesus comes among us, in our all division, not to instruct, comfort or inspire but to die. In doing so, He answers the sum of our self-regard, stupidity and cruelty.
Recognizing truth requires selflessness. You have to leave yourself out of it so you can find out the way things are in themselves, not the way they look to you or how you feel about them or how you would like them to be.
In our totality we are born of the Earth. Our spirituality itself is earth-derived... If there is no spirituality in the earth, then there is no spirituality in ourselves
On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.
There is nothing on earth that I would not give up, excepting of course, two things and two things only, truth and nonviolence.
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