I Love the Germans: Or, Why Our Worship of Free Speech Is Foolish

Newser reports

In the interest of public order, German officials are taking steps to make certain that Koran-burning American preacher Terry Jones can’t get into the country. The Jones ban is being instituted amid rumors that far right groups in Germany plan to invite the Florida preacher to speak in the next few days in the wake of the uproar over the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry says that a visit by Jones would “run counter to the interest of maintaining public order.” The head of the über-right group Pro Deutschland plans to show the anti-Islam film in Berlin. “For us, this is about freedom of art and opinion,” he tells Der Spiegel.

So what do the Germans know that we don’t? What they know is that just because someone ‘can’ say something doesn’t mean that they ‘should’. And while we in America seem to worship free speech above God himself, in Germany what’s valued is civility.

In the struggle between free speech at any cost and civility by means of muzzling hatred, which do you think more rational?  Is it better to tell Joe Dirt that he isn’t allowed to call black folk the N. word in a public assembly or to be forced to intervene when violence replaces sensible civil discourse?

In my estimation it would be better to tell Terry Jones to shut up than it is to bury American boys and girls who have been killed in the Middle East by radical lunatics who, like Jones, value themselves and their opinions above human life.

Or, in sum, which is more important: life or word?