"Although I disagree with every word you say, I shall defend to the death your right to say it." This stirring proclamation by Voltaire could have been said by Thomas Jefferson -- or any of his associates -- since free speech, a mainstay of 18th-century Enlightenment, fueled the American Revolution and is incorporated in our Constitution. In the first half of the previous century, a common phrase was "It's a free country; I can say what I want." That phrase is not so common today, but free speech is still an American ideal, or so most of us think.
