Many people know that it is a good thing to be considerate of other people, their religion, their race, and other things about them. But as everyone knows, the world is not perfect, and neither are the people who live in it. Not everyone you meet is going to be considerate of, or even care at all, about you and how you feel about certain topics. Americans are blessed to live in a place where we have the freedoms to speak out against the government, to voice our opinions, to debate, etc. But a pressing issue that has been growing in recent years is the oppression of this freedom, which is guaranteed to us by the Bill of Rights.
There are arguments that hate (non-threatening) speech, racist speech, and other hateful speech should not be protected by the First Amendment, that the people who say these mean and evil things should not be guaranteed protection to say them. Although people should not say these things, they do. And it is their Constitutional right. Punishing these people would violate the Constitution and the country as a whole would suffer from it for many reasons. Sheltering people from this type of speech is not good for growth. People cannot grow and overcome hardships if they are not exposed to imperfect, or politically incorrect, speech. The world is not always fair, and the things people say won't be either. Cushioning people's perspectives on the world and the people around them in respects to their feelings and opinions is not worth sacrificing one of the most important freedoms in the U.S. Constitution. It may not seem this way, but even when people say hurtful things, or voice their opposing opinions on sensitive topics, we are better from it.
By telling one person that their speech is limited, you are telling the rest of the country that their speech can be limited, in the case that someone or a group of people does not like or agree with what you say. Learning to tolerate diverse speech and opinions and building a tolerant society, can lead to strengthening our country. Not only can tolerating diversity be applied to speech, it can be helpful to the individual in the workplace, at school, in everyday life. It only makes America weaker in limiting the speech of our citizens, one of the reasons this country was born. Not everyone is kind and considerate, but social norms can take care of that. Limiting the rights of Americans is not the answer.
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