Freedom of Speech is Bullshit (a speech I wrote for a high school student-competition)

Freedom of speech, freedom of speech, freedom of speech. Hear the words and look around you. Has anything changed just because we have freedom of speech? Of course not, because freedom of speech, the freedom to speak out is nothing but words, unless we take actions to back them up.

Millions of children, billions of people wake up each day, fearing that today may be their last. They are free to speak out, but that will save them from being blown up by a bomb or starving for lack of food and water. Speaking out will not get them anything to eat at the market. Say it as many times as you like: I’m hungry, my mother and my brothers are dying, please give me some food that we may live – can’t you see, I’m a human just like you. Unfortunately, freedom of speech will not it will not buy you any food - you need money for that.

Freedom of speech, freedom of speech, I can say it a thousand times, but it will not save even a single child or the newborn baby who has just died in her mother’s arms because mommy's body was too weak to produce enough milk to feed her baby. She had freedom of speech; she was free to speak out and she did. So loudly, she cried-out as she was being raped by soldiers who came in the night and murdered everyone in her village, except for the young girls who they kept alive for their pleasure. They had freedom to speak out and they did as they cried for help - that never came.

Freedom of speech, freedom of speech, freedom of speech! I can say it a thousand times and we can praise it until we are all dead, but these words mean nothing without living deeds to back them up. Therefore, I will say to all of you here today, use your words carefully, for without the living deeds to back them up, your freedom of speech amounts to nothing more empty sound bites that you can carry to your grave, only to realize in your last breath, that now it is too late to live the words you spoke in the hollow hope of creating yourself as life.

Freedom of speech, freedom of speech, freedom of speech: it is bullshit without the right and the freedom to practice what we preach. Therefore, today, I will leave you with this promise that I as a new leader will not rest until all of my people; the people of humanity, have the freedom not only to speak out, but also to live the words they speak, equally as one with all of humanity, in peace without fear as life was meant to be. 

My friends sometimes say, I am Buhnan or I am Saedic. I always reply: you and I, we are one in the same; I am an earthling, equally as one with you. For this reason, I will always respect you as I care to have you respect me.

Ladies and gentlemen: let us stop pretending that, freedom of speech is something special when there is no equality as a guaranteed right of every human being to live the words they speak, to live a dignified life. Change for the better will only come when we face reality, self-honestly.

Thank you for listening to my words on Freedom of Speech. I present them to you as a gift from me, free of charge.