Creating, Defining, and Promoting Freedom of Speech

WHAT WE IN AMERICA CALL "Freedom of Speech", and "Freedom of the Press" are what we consider to be basic American values, written explicitly into our constitution, the sort of values which the young king of Saudi Arabia might have been referring to when he asserted that: "Saudi Arabian values are not American values". True enough. All countries and all people are allowed by nature, and therefor ordained by nature's God, as Jefferson might say, to have their own values. Expressing them openly is anther matter, of course. We all have freedom of thought. But because speech is such a powerful tool, people have always been aware of how important it is, both to secure individual freedom and to hold and keep power over other people, to control it. Speech, among humans, has never been without restraints. Our first amendment, legal scholars agree, says that congress cannot infringe upon free speech, but it says nothing about parents, teachers, employers, and friends. Our fist amendment rights are protected by government, only from government. I, however, tend to think of myself as having far more wide ranging free speech rights than are actually guaranteed in the constitution, as I suspect just about all Americans do. In America, we feel as if and believe we have free speech, even if we only have it guaranteed protected from government infringement. Unless I am dreaming, the term "congress" in the constitution in the first amendment has come to mean the federal government in general, and all government in America, state, county, and city. None of the above has the right to infringe upon free speech, unless, as I said, I am dreaming. The same is true with the press, the media in general, including online media and social media, unless I am still dreaming. The truth is, free speech and freedom of the press have always been very rare and limited, like they are today, and, alarmingly, they are under severe attack, all over the world, including in the United States, where Trump's relentless attack on the media is only one of the many reasons why Donald J. Trump is a horrible president, and must either change his behavior fundamentally, or be removed from office. (...and let's face it. he aint likely to change)... His constant accusations of the mainstream American media as "fake news" is a complete lie, and a dangerous, unwarranted attack on the freedom of the press. Anything in the media that criticizes Trump or that Trump doesn't like Trump labels "fake news". Trump gives the impression that he wants to be another Hitler, or petty dictator, an authoritarian ruler about whom nothing negative is permitted to be printed. That is one of the many reasons why Trump is very dangerous, and must be removed, and why freedom of speech and of the press must be defended and encouraged everywhere. Maybe it should be considered a universal, not just an American value.