Eight Values of Free Expression

After reading the eight values of free expression, it's clear that the right to speak openly in our government is an important part of how we live as people. The value that stood out to me the most was the fourth value: Individual Self-Fulfillment (Self-Actualization). This value stood out the most to me because as a teenager, self-expression is a very important part of my identity, without this, I wouldn't be able to figure out for myself what kind of person I want to be in the future.

In my opinion, this value can be easily connected to social media and how people use it to freely show the world who they are through free speech. For me, I use social media to create the outward perception of how I want people to see me, I do this through posting and communicating. I feel like my social media is the best way for me to express myself and in the words of the fourth value, express my, "human dignity, human agency, and autonomy."

Another one of the eight values that stood out to me the most was number eight: Protect Dissent. This value stood out to me the most because I agreed with it the most out of any of the other values. If we the people aren't able to criticize the government, there's no way for us to improve our government and grow as the world is constantly changing. 

Also, if the people aren't able to criticize the government to protect minority views, we could risk giving the government too much power, and democracy could quickly shift and become something very different. 

Being 18 years old and coming up on my first election where I'm able to vote, it's important to me to know that I will always have a voice to criticize the government if I don't agree with something that they're doing. 

Not only this but this value reminds us how important it is to have checks and balances in the government.  For instance, Congress can make laws, but the President can veto those laws. Also, Congress can continue to make laws but the courts can declare those laws unconstitutional. 

Now, having a speech theory that the people can voice their opinions and fight back against the government when they don't agree, that only reinforces that there are checks within the government, and with democracy, like we have in the U.S., the government is not "all-powerful."

Finally, the last value that stood out to me was number 3: Stable Change (Safety Value). This value stood out to me because of the recent tragic event at an elementary school in Nashville, TN.

It's come to my attention that following the school shooting at Haysville West Elementary, parents around the world are sharing the hashtag: #ThisIsNineYearsOld and posting photos of their nine-year-old children, children the same age as the three kids who died in the shooting. The purpose of this hashtag is to show people just how tragic and scary this event was and how we can't be too careful with our children. 

I feel like this terrible event, and more specifically, this hashtag relates to the third value of free expression because people around the world are angry with what's happened and they want to open peoples' eyes to how scary and real school shootings really are. 

Although the value does refer to this sharing of information as "venting," in this case, that's the only part of the value that I feel doesn't line up with this situation because people are publicizing a real, prominent issue in our society, therefore, I wouldn't call that venting simply because I feel like that term can be seen as derogatory. 

Furthermore, having people speak out like this and bring awareness to the worldwide issue of school shootings allows the government to monitor if people are joining together to fight back against this issue or if people are taking this event and using it to fuel more violence. 

This is important because that way, the government can not only allow people to express their concerns for safety in schools and express their condolences for the families suffering right now, but they can also keep an eye on the general public to make sure that people aren't turning an emotional movement into a violent and potentially dangerous revolt.