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My Jewish father was an old country lawyer who believed in deeply in fairness and justice for all living people, so I was curious what he thought about the Nazis. It was spring of 1977, and the American Nazi Party had announced their intention to hold a July 4th rally in the town of Stokie, a predominantly Jewish community in Indiana. Not surprisingly, the town of Stokie had sought an injunction to ban the rally, and the Nazis had, ironically, sought the help of the American Civil Liberties Union to fight the injunction.
The subject at the family dinner table was this: Should the American Civil Liberties Union protect the free-speech rights of Nazis?
Remember, we’re of Jewish heritage. So it’s hard to look at the philosophical issues involved objectively because there’s so much emotion attached to the subject matter. Nonetheless, I’ll never forget my father’s response:
“They have to defend them,” he said of the ACLU’s decision to fight the ban on behalf of the Nazi Party. “Free speech isn’t just for people you agree with.”
It isn’t. Free speech is about vigorously defending the rights of people with whom you disagree.
“Censorship almost always creates more damage than whatever’s being censored would’ve caused,” my father told me.
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