{"id":3478,"date":"2021-01-14T14:27:20","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T19:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/?p=3478"},"modified":"2025-03-12T17:12:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T21:12:30","slug":"from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While planning Planet Word, I had to become familiar with a lot of new \u2014 at least for me \u2014 topics and the often-unfamiliar words and phrases that applied to them:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Construction terminology, like the difference between muntins and mullions.<\/li>\n<li>The lexicon of linguistics: corpora, collocations, metonymy, lingua franca.<\/li>\n<li>Legal terms such as fair use and most-favored-nation.<\/li>\n<li>The specialized vocabulary of museum design: AV integration, lumens, and dwell time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But in the end, the subject that was the most important for me to study and grapple with was more fundamental and difficult: our Constitution. What should a museum devoted to words and language believe and be willing to defend regarding freedom of speech? I knew that sooner or later we\u2019d have to take a stand.<\/p>\n<p>When I started planning Planet Word in 2013, this was a mostly theoretical issue, not one I expected to confront on a daily basis. Yet here we are. Not a day goes by when we\u2019re not facing the issue and hearing claims \u2014 even from the president of the United States \u2014 that someone\u2019s freedom of speech has been violated.<\/p>\n<p>Free speech absolutists, who argue that all speech is protected by the First Amendment, believe people should be free to say whatever they want, passionately arguing that the antidote to hate speech is more speech, not less. That perspective led to neo-Nazis being allowed to march through Skokie, Illinois, in 1978, even though it was home to a heavily Jewish population. That meant the fringe Westboro Baptist cult, because of their opposition to the armed services\u2019 Don\u2019t Ask Don\u2019t Tell policy, was allowed to protest near funerals of U.S. soldiers and their grieving families. All these \u2014 in my opinion \u2014 abhorrent actions were allowed under the banner of the First Amendment and freedom of speech. Despite some unease, I grudgingly accepted that this was overall a positive stance for democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe one reason I felt this way was that I had attended Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, just when the Tinker case was decided by the Supreme Court. In that case, two Roosevelt students successfully challenged their suspension for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. How proud I was of those brave Roosevelt Roughriders who had stood up for their right to free expression \u2014 without disrupting classes or forcing others to agree to their point of view! What a win for freedom of speech!<\/p>\n<p>But I knew there was another side to the argument\u2026 we all know that people aren\u2019t free to shout \u201cfire\u201d in a movie theater. And freedom of speech doesn\u2019t extend to slander or to instigations of violence toward a person or group that is likely to occur and imminent (which is why Apple and Google decided to halt their app stores from downloads of Parler, which for a while allowed posts saying Vice President Mike Pence should be executed for not helping the fight to overturn the election results and, even more incredulously, that \u201c20 coordinated assassinations\u201d were all that would be needed to \u201ctake back our country\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>So the courts had allowed some limits to free speech, and I sought to understand when such limitations were a net positive. As David Von Drehle argued in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/how-do-liberty-and-human-rights-survive-the-age-of-the-internet\/2021\/01\/08\/07cedfca-51d7-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html\">Washington Post<\/a> on January 8, free expression mustn\u2019t feed demagoguery, which would only lead to anarchy and repression, and the end to all such free expression. Supporting arguments put forth by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., he wrote, \u201cWe can, and do, argue over where the freedom ends and the misuse begins, but unless a line is drawn somewhere, the freedom cannot endure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At a museum where visitors are introduced to the stunning diversity of the world\u2019s spoken languages, at a museum where the books and poems and voices enable all visitors to see themselves reflected within its walls, at a museum whose restaurant will offer food from many different immigrant cultures, how could we not limit speech to words that reflected our commitment to tolerance and understanding?<\/p>\n<p>So that was the position that Planet Word had to take. Should a museum dedicated to words and language limit their use within its walls or under its auspices? The unequivocal answer was yes. Only when we freely agree to limit our speech to words that unite rather than divide can we protect the wider freedoms that we so rightly cherish.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Ann Friedman, founder of Planet Word<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While planning Planet Word, I had to become familiar with a lot of new \u2014 at least for me \u2014 topics and the often-unfamiliar words and phrases that applied to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-3478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-founder","tag-power-of-words"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Message from the Founder: Freedom of Speech &#8212; Planet Word Museum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Message from the Founder: Freedom of Speech\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While planning Planet Word, I had to become familiar with a lot of new \u2014 at least for me \u2014 topics and the often-unfamiliar words and phrases that applied to&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Planet Word Museum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PlanetWordDC\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-14T19:27:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-12T21:12:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1708\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Planet Word\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Message from the Founder: Freedom of Speech\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PlanetWordDC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PlanetWordDC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Planet Word\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Planet Word\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/person\/3255359721db3f02adbfaa758decac79\"},\"headline\":\"Freedom of Speech\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-14T19:27:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-12T21:12:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/\"},\"wordCount\":738,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Power of Words\"],\"articleSection\":[\"From the Founder\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/\",\"name\":\"Message from the Founder: Freedom of Speech &#8212; Planet Word Museum\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-14T19:27:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-12T21:12:30+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1708,\"caption\":\"Founder Ann Friendman talking to a reporter\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Freedom of Speech\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/\",\"name\":\"Planet Word Museum\",\"description\":\"The museum where language comes to life\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Planet Word\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/cropped-PW_Logo_BLUE_circle-2-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/cropped-PW_Logo_BLUE_circle-2-1.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Planet Word\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PlanetWordDC\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/PlanetWordDC\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/planetworddc\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/planetworddc\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/PlanetWordDC\/\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Planet_Word\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/person\/3255359721db3f02adbfaa758decac79\",\"name\":\"Planet Word\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfdb27aeaa7da4e97a7ba163e849286e28479fbcadffe32af019a470073287e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfdb27aeaa7da4e97a7ba163e849286e28479fbcadffe32af019a470073287e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Planet Word\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Message from the Founder: Freedom of Speech &#8212; Planet Word Museum","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Message from the Founder: Freedom of Speech","og_description":"While planning Planet Word, I had to become familiar with a lot of new \u2014 at least for me \u2014 topics and the often-unfamiliar words and phrases that applied to&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/","og_site_name":"Planet Word Museum","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PlanetWordDC\/","article_published_time":"2021-01-14T19:27:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-12T21:12:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1708,"url":"http:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Planet Word","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Message from the Founder: Freedom of Speech","twitter_image":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg","twitter_creator":"@PlanetWordDC","twitter_site":"@PlanetWordDC","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Planet Word","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/"},"author":{"name":"Planet Word","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/person\/3255359721db3f02adbfaa758decac79"},"headline":"Freedom of Speech","datePublished":"2021-01-14T19:27:20+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-12T21:12:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/"},"wordCount":738,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg","keywords":["Power of Words"],"articleSection":["From the Founder"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/","url":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/","name":"Message from the Founder: Freedom of Speech &#8212; Planet Word Museum","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2021-01-14T19:27:20+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-12T21:12:30+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/PW_OPENING_078-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1708,"caption":"Founder Ann Friendman talking to a reporter"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-freedom-of-speech\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Freedom of Speech"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/","name":"Planet Word Museum","description":"The museum where language comes to life","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#organization","name":"Planet Word","url":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/cropped-PW_Logo_BLUE_circle-2-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/cropped-PW_Logo_BLUE_circle-2-1.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Planet Word"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PlanetWordDC\/","https:\/\/x.com\/PlanetWordDC","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/planetworddc\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/planetworddc\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/PlanetWordDC\/","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Planet_Word"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/person\/3255359721db3f02adbfaa758decac79","name":"Planet Word","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfdb27aeaa7da4e97a7ba163e849286e28479fbcadffe32af019a470073287e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfdb27aeaa7da4e97a7ba163e849286e28479fbcadffe32af019a470073287e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Planet Word"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}