Chesapeake Circuit Court Judge John W. Brown correctly ruled
that the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) was in the wrong when it revoked
Sean Bujno’s, an Army veteran, personalized license plate that reads, “ICUHAJI.”[1]
The license plate was revoked in 2011 because the DMV, in
its unquestionable wisdom, claimed it could be interpreted as ethnically,
socially, or racially offensive or disparaging; and we wouldn’t want to offend
anyone would we?!
Judge Brown concluded in his judgment that if Virginia
allows individuals to praise ethnicity or religion on their personalized
license plates, it must also let individuals disparage them. That is, free
speech cannot be arbitrarily granted to certain words and phrases.
While Mr. Bujno might be a racist and a bigot, that’s his
right, and if he wants to put words on his personal property that may be
perceived as racist or bigoted, that’s his right as an American as well.
When I see the Confederate Flag traveling down the highway,
a chill of discomfort and disgust initially sets over me. But then I come to an
understanding that this kind of personal display is what makes America the
country that it is: the freedom of each individual to express him or herself as
long as it does no physical harm to anyone else.
If we begin to arbitrarily decide what speech should be free
and which should not, where do these arbitrary decisions end? And who will
decide, the DMV??!
We have attempted to become so politically correct in
Virginia and America that some of our most basic founding freedoms are being
chipped away at for the perception of greater social comfort for all of society’s
groups.
However, there is no such thing as a perfect society, a
worry free society, a society of indefinite emotional and physical comfort. And
it seems like the more we try to find this type of society, the further from it
we move.
This is not to argue that we as a country should not strive
to make the lives of everyone in America better. It is to argue, though, that
our actions often times have unintended consequences that all too often go unrecognized.
The wholly intended consequence in this case is the denial
of speech, be it racist or not, to a Virginia citizen.
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