LETTERS TO THE EDITOR – Cape Cod Times

'Persecution for the expression of opinions'

It was disheartening to read that the chairman of the Bourne School Committee, the governing board of an institution that should value free speech, has, at the least, encouraged Kari MacRae, a member of the committee, to resign over something MacRae said, on the basis that her words were in direct violation of school policy.

It is at times like these that we should remember the wisdom of Justice Oliver Wendell HolmesJr. who in his dissent inAbrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), had this to say:

"Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power, and want a certain result with all your heart, you naturally express your wishes in law, and sweep away all opposition. …

But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market. …

Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. … I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country."

Dana A. Berry, West Barnstable

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - Cape Cod Times