The First Amendment is one of the single most important and ground-breaking principles adopted by our nation. As the very first thing that the founding fathers included in the Constitution, even back then, its relevance was clear. The First Amendment provides the citizens of America six freedoms; freedom from religion, of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. When first instituted, this was a revolutionary idea. Previously, the government of a nation had a say over what kind of beliefs their people could have. Now a days, it is hard to even imagine not being able to speak your mind freely without fear of suffering consequences of the law.
However, the First Amendment does not allow some kinds of speech that are considered dangerous or go against general law. The BlackLivesMatter protests have been at the heart of the news for months now and many people are questioning the legality of some of the demonstrations. There have been several instances widely covered by the media that show protests leading to violence and destruction of public and private property. This is not protected by the First Amendment because it is not only speech, but action. This being said, a report I found showed that only 7% of the 8,000 demonstrations became violent. While this does not excuse the actions of the protesters that took destructive means to protest from the law, it does show that the BlackLivesMatter movement is often inaccurately portrayed as being dangerous and unlawful.
In a world where we are more divided than ever over our personal beliefs and political parties, I think it is important to think of the First Amendment. In the 1700s, it was revolutionary to think that the government was not allowed to censor discriminate you based on your beliefs, maybe now it is time to realize that we as citizens should not as well. We need to become a more united nation or I fear for the worst. A nation attacked from foreigners can rebuild, a nation broken from the inside is much harder to put back together.
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/america-in-crisis/93-of-black-lives-matter-protests-between-late-may-and-late-august-were-peaceful-group-says
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