Essay/Term paper: What freedom of speech means to me

Essay, term paper, research paper:  English

WHAT FREEDOM OF SPEECH MEANS TO ME

The Bill of Rights states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or profiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." This is quite possibly the amendment that makes the United States the democratic and orderly country it is.
The choice and freedom to say and listen to whatever one wants is the ultimate independence. This means the United States allows the most freedom, therefore making it the best country in the world.
As I am growing and maturing in my life, I find it essential that I have the liberty to say and hear whatever I want to hear. Recently I have been doing research on different religions and theories, and without the freedom of speech, many of the enlightening ideas that I have received could have passed me by, restricting my learning and intellectual expansion.
Try as we, the people and lawmakers might, it is impossible to restrict a person from doing whatever is their desire and in their grasp. Any person, at any time, can say anything they want to. And for good reason. We are a democracy where the people make the rules, and the people own the country. The place that the government should step in is when it endangers, damages, or insults another human being.
When the leaders of our country wrote the constitution of the United States, they knew that their rules would have to be broken sometime in the future. What they didn"t think would happen, is that the rules would be broken barely more than two hundred years after they were written. The freedom of speech is a rule that must not be broken now or ever.