Freedom to Express Thought – Students Exercise Freedom of Speech – Abundant Life Academy

by Craig Rogers – co-founder of Abundant Life Academy

At Abundant Life Academy our student-leaders are taught the importance of Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Thought, and the Freedom to express oneself in a way that will be respected, heard, appreciated, recognized, approved, and valued.  At Abundant Life Academy we teach our students the importance of being heard, of being counted, of being respected, and the ability to influence the world around them.  First, to be heard a person must be tolerant of others, especially of others who have a different opinion or viewpoint.  To be heard and counted someone must first show respect to others point of view, and to listen well, and to give credence to others in a way that honors them, even if they differ from us.  Other wise, being unwilling to listen to others, or unwilling to allow others to differ, is to be intolerant and disrespectful.

The ALA student-leader is taught that those who are intolerant will by default dismiss themselves and their message or voice will be lost.  Essentially, because of their intolerance no one will listen.  The Abundant Life Academy student-leader learns the value of having a voice, the value of being heard, and the responsibility we have to ensure that  of all people to have the freedom to express their opinion and viewpoint, especially those who disagree with us. To have freedom of speech their must be the protection of all speech, regardless of how speech aligns with our own opinions or viewpoints.  The Abundant Life Academy student-leader learns to respect others rights before exercising their own.  The right to free speech comes at a cost.  The cost is respect, honor, accountability, understanding, appreciation, and the willingness to fight for all voices to be heard.  Otherwise, the ALA student-leader realizes that the moment we allow intolerance is the day the decay of our freedoms begin, and sooner or later no one will have the freedom of speech.  To be respectful of others right to express their opinions and viewpoints is to protect your own rights.  To allow intolerance to attack or discount someone’s right to free speech is to open the same door that Nazi Germany opened 70 years ago.

Intolerance and the attempt to shutdown others right to express thought, opi when nion, or viewpoint is the beginning of the demise of the society.  Intolerance is a radical form of disrespect, dishonor, and even hate.  To speak your mind and to exercise your right to speech without the fear of being attacked for your views is our rights as Americans.  We have seen the evil destruction of the “speech police”, where intolerance breeds ugly hate, and left unchecked the demise of the society is inevitable.  The Taliban is the evidence that we need to understand the end result of intolerance.  Abuse and harm to the very fabric of civil right is the logical conclusion to intolerance.

To be intolerant is to self-discount, self-dismiss, and self-defeat.  In tolerance, a person is respectful of others right to differ, and being tolerant shows respect for others right to hold their own ideas, notions, thoughts, and opinions.  To be tolerant and respectful of others is to be whole, stable, confident, self-assured, and respectful.  At ALA our student-leaders is that everyone has the desire and drive to be counted, to be connected, to be heard, and to be able to express themselves in ways that contribute to the over all health of our selves and of society.  To be intolerant of others and their right to free speech is to be emotionally incompetent, emotionally immature, and even emotionally bankrupt.

To start, the Student-Leaders of Abundant Life Academy are taught that they are not victims.  To be a victim is to be ruined, spoiled, tainted, tarnished, stained, helpless, and hopeless.  Victims, in the helpless sense cry out, seek vengeance, want revenge, and strike out at society.  Having been hurt the victim has zero tolerance for anyone or anything closely associated with the victimizer.  Victims, for our purposes are defined as a person who was mistreated 30 or 40 years ago but they still carry hate toward all people even remotely associated with the victimizer.  For example, if the victim was mistreated by staff from a troubled teen boarding school 40 years ago “the victim” might carry hatred toward all boarding schools today, regardless of who they are and what they do.