Robin Abcarian: The right to say awful stuff
We seem to be having a hard time grasping that the right to free expression is meaningful only if we are willing to protect the most disgusting and offensive statements.
Even if you love the American flag, for example, you must understand that someone who does not cannot be arrested or prosecuted for burning it.
"The hard fact is that sometimes we must make decisions we do not like," wrote U.S. Supreme Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1989 when the court ruled 5 to 4 that flag burning is protected speech. "We make them because they are right."
And so, we need to
