By Noah Kotlarek
The “Trump Our Leader The Idiot” billboard has a right to remain standing. Neil Harrison’s sign does not encourage violence against our President: it simply says that Harrison thinks Trump is an idiot and promotes Harrison’s upcoming movie.
Penalizing people for expressing their opinion or promoting their movie is backwards. In fact, it’s what Saudi Arabia just did. Last week, the Saudi public prosecutor released a statement reading, “Producing and distributing content that ridicules, mocks, provokes and disrupts public order on social media…will be considered a cybercrime punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of 800,000 USD.”
Fortunately, we do not live in Saudi Arabia. Instead, we live in the United States of America, a country founded on the principle of freedom of speech. According to the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” The government’s job is to work towards improving the their citizens’ situations. This cannot be accomplished without input from the citizens.
It is important that citizens have the means to criticize the government so that they can shape it into something better and protect themselves from being controlled by the central authority.
Our first president George Washington once said, “the freedom of speech may be taken away, and, dumb & silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” Freedom of speech is the basis for citizens to bring about change and keep their leaders in check.
Through it, people share ideas and build coalitions that can impact the nation for the better. Though calling Trump an idiot offers little constructive input, it must be at least tolerated. If the right to display this silly sign is encroached upon, what is next? Someone who has something useful may get blocked out. Although not ideal, there must be a hard line set regarding freedom of speech to protect the people who have something meaningful to say. Society cannot afford a gray area that can be manipulated by legislators to chip away at civilians’ rights.
Besides, is what Neil Harrison called Trump really that offensive? If Neil Harrison can’t call Trump an idiot in front of the 65,000 people who live in Township, New Jersey, then Trump can’t call Ted Cruz a “nasty guy” in front of millions. And of those millions of people who watched Trump call Cruz a “nasty guy” on television, how many of them physically attacked Cruz because of it?
If someone were to assault Trump, it would not be because they saw a billboard saying that Trump is stupid. The person would have had to been provoked by something greater.
Penalizing the people for putting up billboards saying that our Commander in Chief is a fool will probably stop people from putting up billboards saying that our Commander in Chief is a fool, but it won’t stop violence. Neil Harrison probably does not wish to put Trump in a harmful situation. Rational people like him would probably submit to the new penalty and continue about their lives as productive taxpaying citizens. The penalty will not, however, stop people who do wish to put Trump in a harmful situation. Those people do not care about the law.
They are willing to get shot by the Secret Service, suffer through water-boarding and take a one-way flight to Guantanamo to hurt the president. Will they care about a fine, a “penalty?”
Maybe these mean nicknames can incite violence, but if that is the case then it is not the fault of the name-caller but a failure of the educational system. The educational system must produce critical thinkers. If effective, then it will ensure that Trump’s safety is not compromised by a sign calling him an idiot.
Instead of worrying about the president’s safety on the basis of a name-calling billboard or being offended by it, we should cherish the fact that we live in a country where we can criticize our leaders and where we can express our concerns about the sign. That’s a beautiful thing, and not everyone has that privilege.
Noah Kotlarek, GSB ’22, is undecided.
