Today is the first anniversary of the Thomas Jefferson Center’s Monument to the First Amendment in Charlottesville, Virginia.
To date, it has measured up to the very best expectations of it supporters and a few of the worst expectations of its critics at the time.
At it’s opening, here is a bit of what Dahlia Lithwick had to say:
“The whole country is watching little Charlottesville right
now–watching to see if this experiment in wholly unfettered speech
will quickly descend to the worst forms of modern
discourse–swiftboating, gratuitous name-calling, obscenity and lies.
Let us prove to them that we understand, in this birthplace of Thomas
Jefferson, that free speech is much more than that; that we recognize
that free listening is still at the heart of free speech. Let’s prove
that a robust free market of ideas can thrive here, but only if we
respect each other enough to listen.”
Is anyone listening?
Dahlia Lithwick is Senior Editor at Slate.com and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Center.
This photo was taken at the opening ceremony of the Monument to the First Amendment on April 20, 2006 in Charlottesville, Virginia.