What is Freedom of Speech?

"We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ...."  
 
-  The Declaration of Independence (1776)
 
 
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
 
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
  
- Amendment XIII of the Constitution of the United States (Ratified December 6, 1865)
 
 
" The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."
 
- a quote from Alexander Hamilton (1775) 
 
 
 
What is freedom of speech? The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition that best applies defines freedom as:
 
1. the quality or state of being free
 
 
Speech, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is:
 
1. the act of speaking
 
 
Since September 11, 2001, a veil of suspicion and doubt has been cast upon any who have not embraced the United States' policies that have been drafted and written to fight what is termed, a War on Terrorism or Terror, a war without specifically defined enemies, without defined territories in dispute and, by the nature of the nebulous criteria, allowing the capacity for an ever morphing list of enemies and actions.
 
At present, the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, written in the U.S. Constitution, has not been abolished but, there are voices among those that support these actions taken by the U.S. government that desire to silence the voices of those who question the actions that have led to this state of affairs, actions resulting in loss of life, injury and pain, to all who are fighting in this war.
 
The United States of America, a nation whose origins began with what is identified as the settling of the lands of the millions of indigenous peoples found living here, the centuries long enslavement of Africans and their descendants for the purposes of building the nation, has been plodding along, trying to reconcile and rectify its history, in order to include those not originally meant to be included as members of the nation.
 
It must be understood that the perspectives of those termed minority populations may not see events through the eyes of those identified as the majority. If settlers lay claim to land already inhabited, can or will the original inhabitants view this as a benign or hostile action?
 
If some of the descendants of enslaved Africans in the U.S., given their life experiences, with less than one hundred forty three years having past since the abolition of slavery, which is less than the total time slavery existed, do not view actions taken by the government in the same manner as the majority, this does not mean their voices should not be heard.
 
Still others, due to their life experience, living inside and outside of the U.S., observe events happening within the United States,  as relates to world politics, from their vantage points and may also find their views not in alignment with others.   
 
This medium, here at NowPublic, has allowed freedom of expression to all. I hope it will continue to do so without a descent into incivility, name calling and rudeness, until all that remains is the faint echo of the voices of those who chose to speak but speak no more.
 
 
" We all travel through this existence as witnesses to life's events. How each and every one of us experiences these events results in shared perspectives and insights unique to each of us unto ourselves."
 
-  Karen Hatter