These days free speech is under attack more than ever. Growing up, we were told over and over that it was the liberals that were the champions of free speech. With the recent rise of conservative tv and talk radio, there is a serious effort among so called 'progressives' to silence dissenters.
The internet is a place where people can chat with like minded individuals about every topic imaginable. The blogosphere has grown so fast that sometimes its hard to separate the "professional" reporter from the individual working out of their basement in order to make a few dollars covering controversial topics with little or no knowledge or an axe to grind.
Case in point, a few years back, a blogger decided to write an article suggesting that Christian Expressions first communion children looked like 'porn stars'. Like most mature, rational people, I was disgusted that she attacked both the children on our site and the Catholic tradition as a whole.
In my opinion, its usually best to treat these individuals in the same manner as any other adult who is acting like a child in order to gain attention and that is to ignore them, as attention is exactly what they want.
Unfortunately the internet will continue to breed irresponsible behavior but we must never forget that as repulsive as this behavior is, losing our free speech is the ultimate loss for us all. Lets keep the internet free from government interference! Oh, and pray for these individuals
Janice Lennon
