“From what I can remember, folks back in the colonies were imprisoned for complaining about what the king was doing.”
That’s kinda my point. How does free speech not cover that? Petitions would be nice as well, but since the government can say “[raspberry!]” just as easily as it can to any other form of speech, was it really necessary to include it in the Constititution.
What does it officially require the government to do, anyway? Glance at it for at least 2.5 seconds before pitching it in the trash. You can say that if we have the right to petition the government we can damn the government for ignoring us. But can’t we do that with speech and assembly alone?
There is a certain redundancy in “freedom of speech” and the “right to petition for redress of grievances”. The latter refers to requesting (formally or informally, in speech or writing) that the government take some specific action or that it cease disobeying its own laws.