To the Editor:
I have been thinking a great deal these past few days, as I trust many others have, about the meaning and implications of a reported act of vandalism reflecting prejudice toward Asian and Asian-American members of this community. Acts of bigotry and intolerance are rightly occasions for hurt, anger, fear and frustration -- sentiments that should not be confined only to the individuals and groups immediately targeted or affected but shared by all of us. Depending on the community and how it responds, such acts can also be occasions for solidarity, support, self-examination and progress toward our best ideals.
At the very least, we should be shaken from any naive complacency that we are anywhere near achieving our aspirations for the kind of community we should be. We should also be reminded of and challenged by the very real moral and intellectual difficulty of balancing and holding together our condemnation of intolerance and our commitment to protecting freedom of expression. We should worry if that balancing act seems too easy, for fear that we do not give sufficient weight to the cost that some members of the community pay for the freedom abused by others. Some of us don't pay enough.
Most assuredly, freedom of expression does not mean freedom from community censure (as opposed to censorship) of attitudes, speech, and behaviors that, while not prohibited by adjudicable rules, are absolutely contrary to our basic values and purposes. And freedom of expression does not mean freedom to violate other community standards that are indeed adjudicable. Finally, respect for freedom of speech by no means entails respect for the sentiments expressed. Rather, it entails respect for the freedom and even obligation that members of a community have to speak the truth about what they see as right and wrong and to speak out against injustice.
