This was in the daily "Bleed" that I receive from the Recollection Bookstore in Seattle, a sort of anarchist-oriented literary-political almanac that often covers events of the day throughout history that, curiously enough, fail to turn up in the daily almanac in the Hartford Courant. Since it pertains to the subject at hand, I thought I'd post it and ask for the reactions of other Mudcatters.

To avoid any misunderstandings, I am not an anarchist, just a good old 1940's left-wing liberal card-carrying ACLU pinko grandfather who feels we must work to counter the advocates of violence and hatred and strive to make our children and our grandchildren conscious of the sanctity of life - as LEJ phrased it in another thread.

Sandy

Make no laws whatever concerning speech & speech will be free; so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license"; & they will refine & define freedom out of existence. Let the guarantee of free speech be in every man's determination to use it, & we shall have no need of paper declarations. On the other hand, so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so...

— Voltairine de Cleyre, "Anarchism & American Traditions"