For what it's worth

A lot has been said about freedom in the past few days. Politicians, pundits, publishers and the general public have spent considerable time extolling the virtues of freedom of speech. And with good reason.
At this point, it's likely there's little I can add to the conversation. But as you know by now, I am a former journalist and an award-winning author. More importantly, I am a first-generation American raised in a multicultural household. My father was a political refugee who was forced to flee a Communist country because of his political beliefs.
As a result, I have always valued the liberties afforded me as an American. I am fully aware of how precious freedom is; and of the price so many paid to attain it. Hard won, it is hardly guaranteed -- yet for some reason, so many take it for granted.
That being stated, here are a few of my favorite quotes about freedom of speech:
1. "What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” ― Salman Rushdie
2. “Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.” ― Winston S. Churchill
3. “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets..” ― Napoléon Bonaparte
4. “The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty."
[Beauharnais v.Illinois, 342 U.S. 250, 287 (1952) (dissenting)]”
― William O. Douglas
5. “The only security of all is in a free press.” ― Thomas Jefferson
6. “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell
7. “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” ― George Washington
8. “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.” ― Voltaire
9. “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” ― Benjamin Franklin, Silence Dogood, The Busy-Body, and Early Writings
10. “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” ― United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Until next time, "That's life..."