Imagine yourself in a world where you couldn't say what you wanted or express what you felt. Daily thoughts said out loud like “Man, this lesson is stupid” were no longer allowed to be anything but thoughts. Many people in other countries have rules and regulations about what they can and cannot say. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution gives Americans the right to free speech (Lakoff 260). Learning to speak is something our parents praise us for when we are little. Why, after all the waiting they've endured, would parents let strangers decide what their child could and couldn't say? Censorship of language and speech becomes too strict. Although we have the right to free speech, there are certain restrictions, such as "fighting words," that are not permitted by the First Amendment. The essay "There's No such Thing as Free Speech, and That's a Good Thing Too" by Stanley Fish contains information on the Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire. The Court declared in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire that "certain forms of speech are not really speech because their purpose is to incite violence or because they are "fighting words," words likely to provoke retaliation in the average person , and thus provoke reprisals. cause a breach of the peace” (Fish 307) Chaplinsky was a Jehovah’s Witness who got into a verbal argument with the town marshal. Chaplinsky was arrested and convicted for calling the city marshal a "damn racketeer" and a "damn fascist" (Lakoff 264). In the case of Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, the courts assumed that "certain words are so bad that upon hearing them an ordinary person must strike (as reflexively as when the doctor taps your knee with a hammer, you must j...... at middle of paper ......ities of life and one of the it is about understanding when their thoughts and opinions are welcome and when they are not. These same people also know that. they have the right to say what they want, they should also know how to have enough respect for the people they speak to. Everyone has rights and should be able to keep them. still have them. Works Cited Fish, Stanley. “There's No such Thing as Free Speech, and That's a Good Thing,” Oklahoma's Exploring Language. New York: Pearson Custom, 2009. 304-16. Print.Kors, Alan “The Betrayal of Freedom on American Campuses” Exploring Language University of Oklahoma ed. New York: Pearson Custom, 2009. 294-300. Print.Lakoff, Robin. “Hate speech” Exploring language. University of Oklahoma ed. New York: Pearson Custom, 2009. 259-66. Print.