Introduction by Joe Grant, Wiscasset

I attended the Maine Republican Convention in Augusta this weekend and heard many fine speeches. Our candidates outlined the current issues (and solutions) that are burdening our country and our people; inflation, crime, drugs, uncontrolled immigration, looming wars, the polarizing and harsh tone of politics in our United States, and the disappearing American Dream. I enthusiastically joined the many rounds of heart-felt applause. One speech, however, stood out with its timeless and universal message – the subject was freedom of speech and truth. The speaker was Robert Charles, a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. His latest book, “Cherish America,” will be out in 2024. The following is his speech.

Society, Free Speech, Parakeets, And Wisdom

April 26, 2024 Robert B. Charles (AMAC)

Wisdom… Listening to what I did not want to hear, I stopped today and watched my parakeet chatter. He was sure he was being heard, probably thinking he was making an important point, one I would ponder. I thought about why he talks. Often, he just holds forth… thinking I understand him, I guess.

That made me think some more. Funny isn’t it – different as we are, some days my own disenchantment with the world makes me stop typing, look at him, and vent my spleen. I expect no response, but he listens to me …as I explain or ask how another new stupidity can be happening.

Like me, he probably feels better having gotten his concern, request, or issue off that green and yellow chest. I always feel a bit better myself, having observed the world’s latest absurdity … out loud.

Freedom of speech – one of the sacred rights in our First Amendment – is often discussed today, defended for its value in helping us get at truth, or just say our piece. Free speech, as we know, is wonderful for encouraging a robust contest between different ideas – which makes us think, reflect, and reorient, sometimes making us wiser.

I just observed this beautiful thing in motion at the Maine GOP Convention.  Rather than shouting each other down, more than 1500 people sat and listened, rose and spoke, said their point, were heard, caused others to think, as planks of the platform were considered, altered, thoughtfully discussed, amended and passed. The thing was beautiful, would have brought my parakeet to silence, which is saying something.

Of course, I hear you. More broadly, do people even want the truth anymore? Do they have the courage to listen, the ability to think, reflect, and humbly reorient?

Do they understand there is a thing called “truth,” right and wrong, up and down, east and west, valid and invalid, True North and magnetic north, and – closing that loop – do they understand that absolutes DO exist in math, law, and life, that freedom of speech is one of those unchanging absolutes, which allows us to identify the others?

Do people understand that societies rise or fall on their willingness to understand? That they prosper or perish on willingness to care? Do they understand that a fair, civil, and self-governing society persists only with respect for rights? Do they grasp that rights like speech must be equal, that we must each have them, in order to all have them?

Do people bother to see history’s light in their lives? Assuming many do not, do they at least see the hurricane’s circularity – that if we suppress others’ rights, we dishonor the concept of “equal rights” and invariably will lose our own? Churchill’s crocodile is blind; if you feed oppression, it will eventually come back …and eat you.

Do people even care about others’ rights, given how our leaders are behaving, how they oppress those they do not like, then just shrug and move on, imagining others will like their special brand of oppression, knowing that respect for free speech is hard work, and often very uncomfortable?

Do people realize that rights dishonored …soon disappear? Do they pause to care how others are treated? Do they appreciate we are different in what propels us, but THAT is our strength? Do they see that free speech prevents what dogs most of the world, what opens the door to oppression, enforced conformity? Do they see the beauty in all these freedoms?

If you are a pessimist – some might say a realist – you will say “No, people do not care about the truth, do not believe in it, do not understand it. They see no linkage between dishonoring the rights of others and losing their own. They live in the dark satisfaction of seeing others persecuted, shut down, sidelined, ignored.”

I hope that is not true, except for a few. I think, in the night’s quiet, the truth does find most of us, even those who think they can outrun it. Like a shadow or the next dawn, we can never outrun it, no matter how we try. Conscience is like that, it forces reflection, often reorientation, involuntarily.

And what does that mean? It means there remains enormous hope – if we can just keep allowing differences in outlook, differing perspectives on life, to surface, even inviting them forward, honoring the idea of free speech, knowing that the present discomfort makes us all stronger, and sometimes wiser.

Well, I had just rolled through all these thoughts, thinking we must learn to tolerate what we do not understand … when my parakeet thought I had thunk enough and exploded. He can be so noisy at times the dogs resettle at my feet. They did. Then, it swept me – maybe he was trying to say something important to him. Looking over, that’s when I noticed … his water dish was empty. Willing to listen, I learned something new, and from a parakeet! And there you have it, this business about listening for wisdom.