Need to Know
“It’s a free county.”
How many times have you said it? Or heard it said? Children say it almost as soon as they learn to talk.
It’s an idea that is so woven into the fabric of our lives that it is for many of us—despite all the wrongs of this country’s past—perhaps the simplest possible distillation of what America is about or, at least, should be about.
At least it was.
But is it true any longer? Is it true if the government can tell a university what to teach and how? Or if that government uses its power to snatch legal residents off the streets for expressing a view it does not like? Or if leaders in Washington threaten law firms that if they do not embrace clients with certain beliefs they will be forced out of business? Or if promoting simple ideas like the merits of diversity or the importance of equity and inclusion can be banned within the government or within entities that receive funds from the government? When pictures of Americans of color or women are banned from government websites? When words are considered so dangerous that they become banned in research proposals or any documents that require the approval of a government official?
