July Editorial; Promoting & Utilizing Freedom of Speech Through Literature
Summer is in full swing. The grills are grilling, the fireworks are firing, and the kids are practically living in their swimming suits to cool off from the heat. For obvious reasons, this season reminds us to take stock of our lives and our rights as we know them. How we founded them, how we must forge ahead to keep them.
This editor can’t help but feel a burning passion for the freedom most in line with her work: Freedom of speech. The fundamental right to express our ideas, our opinions, our creativity, and our minds without fear of retaliation or censorship. Within this article I’m going to explore a few different applications of this right and our necessary fight to keep it!
"In order to be great we have to be brave and willing to express what and who we truly are."
Many authors fear offending the public in several ways. They want to be successful in their career, they don’t want to be known as someone that would isolate whole groups of people, and, hopefully, they want to strive to be empathetic towards people of other walks of life. Those are all understandable. However, if authors shy away from any sort of conflict and never assert their opinions or the gritty details of reality, they never truly say anything. People would rather read something they might not totally agree with than 300 pages worth of a flavorless un-opinionated being that never truly says anything. In order to be great we have to be brave and willing to express what and who we truly are. We have to forge ahead into troubled waters in order to pique the interest of our readers! The most notable works still known today ARE great because a person was brave enough to speak up and was overcome by a NEED to write what they felt.
"The most notable works still known today are great because a person was unafraid of what would come and was overcome with a NEED to write what they felt."
As the summer holiday draws near, let us remember that all of our rights are demanded! If we become so fearful of a book being banned that we don’t write it, what becomes of us? Someone threatening to take away our right to speak for ourselves should never cause anything, but an outrage! The moment we become too distracted or indifferent we have already lost. So, no, we should not be fearful of what social media might say, what a reviewer might think. We should be true to ourselves and speak honestly about what we are passionate about and trust that those who need to hear us will find us. We might think our material is too dark, too confusing, or too odd. But, as we've said many times in our free writers groups, nothing you say is so unusual that another person can’t identify with it. Be brave, and be honest, and be the liberator of isolation from the readers who feel trapped in a corner of “too unusual”. Not only do your ideas matter, they make all the difference.
The counterpart that empowers freedom of speech, is listening with intentionality. No matter what age or education level, we never reach a point when we have learned all we need to know from the world. So, be open to listening to what others have to say, as well as speaking your own truth. Lessons come from the most unlikely places. You may not agree with a fellow author, that’s fine! Simply by listening to their lived experiences, their truth, and their ideas, we find a deeper well of our own understanding. The beautiful aspect of freedom of speech is that we can listen and learn from each other as much as we speak for ourselves. This freedom, when respected equally, is a great unifier for all of us. Respect your own voice, and speak freely. Respect your fellow humans, and listen purposefully with compassion.
Until next time, keep looking for that silver lining,
Patricia L. Hartman,
Chief of Editing for Midnight Garden Publishing
