Will+F’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2017

When I was younger, I used to have very polar views of our two political parties: I used to think liberals were a bunch of brain-dead hippies who mentally masturbated to Woodstock and marijuana, while Conservatives were a bunch of racist old white dudes who literally masturbated onto Ronald Reagan’s grave. Of course, as I got older, I began to realize that while the battling sides of our country are fundamentally very different, they were more similar than they actually appeared.

In terms of my own political background, my father and his side of the family is very conservative, and I too have the same Republican checklist as Noel’s of gun-range-toting and periodic visits to the Reagan library (and I promise I don’t masturbate onto his grave); but I also have a fairly liberal mother and several friends who have more liberal views, I mean we do live in Commiefornia USA that never used to always vote Republican or have Republican governors or “governators”. But, because I realized this background later in my adolescent life, my own views have been a surprisingly tranquil collision of the two parties, though I’m generally more liberal about the individual human and more conservative about humanity as a whole. With this flexible vision I’ve been able to truly witness how people on both ends of the spectrum behave and appreciate both of their views, but that’s when I realized that one commonality that truly disturbs me. You see, we’ve talked a lot about how people suppress each other’s voices because of their political affiliation, but what hasn’t been brought up that I think posses a greater threat to our society is how much we censor ourselves. Too often do I see people repress their own thoughts and opinions over offending other groups, or for the fear that what they say falls short of being politically correct, and from this I fear we are forging a Fahrenheit 451-esque environment where our freedom of speech is not devalued by the demands of others, but by the fear found within ourselves. It doesn’t take scrutinizing sentinels or an oppressive regime to silence the masses, but the masses themselves, and I see an America where we are failing to utilize our First Amendment rights because we are afraid of what others will think of us, when the whole point of having this right was to prevent such internal oppression. Most often, it’s at the fault of not wanting to offend people with your thoughts, but I believe we are confusing offense and expression, muddling the two in the frantic “PC” twister that modern society has wrought. There’s a difference between using your words to deliberately assault someone and using them to express your beliefs with sophistication and respect. Shouting the n-word at a black community is offensive, but having a discussion on the disruptive nature of black lives matter riots is not. If you are anti-gay rights or anti-abortion, expressing that isn’t offensive so long as your aren’t going out of your way to belittle someone in the process. Yet, now we live in a world where any expression of thought is considered a crime, and that the only way to avoid the lashes of society is to shut up. Is this the America we pride ourselves over, or some Orwellian-Bradburian shell of it?

Then there’s the actual misuse of the term “politically-correct”, something I think has overstated it’s bounds and has plunged this nation into a state of self-censorship. Firstly, if you’re not in politics, you shouldn’t have to worry about something that has “politically” in the name (**cough cough** hollywood **cough cough**). But even then, the realm of political correctness has exceeded its power, and its control has run rampant. Even here at school, people sequester their beliefs because it might be caustic to fragile ears, and I ask what’s the point of free speech when we restrict ourselves so much? It went from preventing truly irreverent and untasteful vocabulary to any word that might hint at offense, that as Trey delineated in his speech, is arbitrary established by a group of guilty whites in defense of nobody. Political Correctness has become arbitrary as well, and I’m not sure what can be said anymore without facing judgment from a secret police of everyday people desperate to fight against their own democratic nature.

But, we allow that notion to take control of our expression. I’m guilty of it myself. I can’t tell you how many times I revised my own opinion articles because I was afraid my words wouldn’t bode well with readers, even though it was my opinion. I silently watch political discussions amongst my friends because I’m afraid that if I state some of my thoughts-- that I hate Section 8 housing because it allows people who don’t want to work harder or get a condo to leech off the government; or that I do believe a woman has a right to an abortion because it’s her body at risk, not yours-- my very friends will see my voice as nothing more than a revolting eruption of crass, even though I have no evidence to suggest they’ll hate me because I haven’t said anything. And the more I observe, the more I realize everyone else mentally staples their lips shut and uses the pain of cold, thoughtless metal splicing through boiling, argumentative blood as a reminder that censorship is somehow for the better. This is where I see politics come into play. In a world so polemically and politically charged, we’ve become confused children overwhelmed by the myriad of tweets, articles, bumper stickers, picket signs, rallies, protests, riots, attacks, threats, brutality, violence, terror and disruption caused by the rapidly moving politics of this epoch, that like children, we believe the only way to mollify ourselves is to sit quiet and hope that it passes by. In fact, I would consider this decade a Paradigm Shift in how our society functions: we see how hysterical and pugnacious responses to politics are on television and in the news that we have come to expect that from our peers. If this truly is a turning point in our nation, then we are failing miserably. We will emerge from this Shift as slaves to our own cowardliness, and we will put in vain what our forefathers fought so valiantly for 400 years ago.

Even here at school, you have conservatives not wanting to offend the oppressive mass of “special snowflakes” and the liberals not wanting to stomp out the “bigoted” minority, when we should be having free discourse in our halls. I guarantee you that when William Lloyd Garrison, Abraham Lincoln, Ida Tarbell, Martin Luther King Jr., and other influential figures in our history wanted change, they damn sure didn’t stay quiet out of fear. So why do we? I’m not advocating for a un-United States that’s lathers in quarreling and waging total war amongst itself, but a United States that can have open debate and discussion without trepidation. So many people wish that people could get along with each other, but I only consider this beneficial to a certain extent. We are a diverse people from many backgrounds, and if we conform to a set standard of safe-zone neutrality, then we compromise the foundations of democracy this nation was built on. I’m not asking for an angry America where we yell at each other, but a disgruntled one where we speak with passion.

So, I ask of you fellow AmExers not to allow yourselves to be quieted by your own uncertainties, to let your voice be heard regardless of what others’ think, because they won’t be thinking of anything if you remain mute. If there’s something you so strongly believe that you urge to mentally masturbate to it, then it is your duty to our nation to masturbate to it everywhere, masturbate to it at anytime, and masturbate to it on everyone! I want to grow old in an America where we aren’t afraid to use our freedom of expression, because if we allow our own self-doubt to shackle the voices of democracy that keeps society progressing, then we lose the right and privilege to call ourselves Americans. Thank you.