It is Time to Repeal the First Amendment

            It is time to repeal the First Amendment to the Constitution.  When the Founding Fathers penned the Constitution and later the amendments to the Constitution, they could never have imagined what speech would look like today.  Printing mass copies of newspapers and handbills was done by a painstaking process that required physically inking a pad, laying paper out on a press, placing type backwards in racks, and pressing the type down onto the paper.  Automation, even by rolling a drum with print on it over the top of paper did not exist.  It literally took hours and hours to print a newspaper.  Books were a relatively rare commodity at the time.

            Television, radio, motion pictures, amplified speech, phonographs, telephones, satellite communications, digital cameras, iPhones and Smartphones, the internet and all things digital were nonexistent.  Hate speech had not yet been defined.  Mass production of posters did not exist.  CNN, MSNBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, and NBC and their talking heads did not exist.  Late-night television entertainment morphed into political speech did not exist.  Live coverage of sessions of Congress did not exist.  Selective photographs of mass crowds in attendance of gatherings did not exist.  Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and even Snapchat did not exist.  Opinions spewed forth at the speed of light as factual news did not exist.

            The conditions surrounding free speech as exercised today were never conceived of in the late Eighteenth Century.  The Founding Fathers never foresaw rapid-fire newsprint or around-the-world and around-the-clock instant mass communication so rapidly delivered that the human mind can barely take it all in.  They never foresaw video games portraying mass murders nor could they perceive Grand Theft Auto as acceptable.  They never foresaw the time when people would use the media to protest and even assault those who chose to worship differently than they did all under the guise of free speech.  They never foresaw the unaccountability of the press even under the protection of the law.  They never foresaw the manpower and expense that it would take to preserve order when hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of people gather to protest.  They were aware of the damage that could be caused by small crowds, but they never foresaw the hundreds of thousands of dollars or even the millions of dollars of damage that thousands of people could do during a protest.  They never even foresaw the litter that would be left behind at such events.  Incessant hounding and dogging of political figures consisted of an occasional reproach, not something that happened on a daily or even hourly basis.  They never foresaw the criticism of what a political figure’s spouse wore to an event or if a president rendered a proper military salute.

            No, what the Founding Fathers saw was a press that put out one single sheet of paper at a time after hours and hours of preparation.  They saw small groups of people assembled in churches or assembly halls who gave thoughtful consideration to issues, actions, and consequences.  They saw communication carried out by letter delivered on horseback or by days and weeks by sail to destinations overseas.  They saw an era or responsibility and accountability.  They saw free speech, freedom to choose a religion, freedom to peaceably assemble, and freedom of the press much differently than what those things mean today.

            The First Amendment is outdated.  It is time to repeal the First Amendment.