[aNYCguy]

this country treasures its freedom of religion. That includes freedom from having it "stuck to you" in public places.

That's simply not true. I could go out on a public street tomorrow and stick it to any religious group at all with speech and text. There would only be a basis for physically preventing me if it was determined that I was inciting a riot or some other tangential consideration.

Speech is protected. You are not protected from having your feelings hurt.

[dsc]

"That's simply not true. I could go out on a public street tomorrow and stick it to any religious group at all with speech and text."

We're not talking about the same thing. Yes, you can go out on the street and talk to anybody who'll listen. However, there are things you cannot legally or rightfully do.

For instance, as a supervisor in a workplace, you cannot legally or rightfully call your subordinates together and attempt to make adherents of a given religion objects of mockery in the workplace.

You cannot legally or rightfully call a meeting of your subordinates and say things like, "Hey, how about those Jews and those ridiculous dietary rules, eh? And the way they say they won't marry anybody who's not a Jew. What a pack of idiots, right? And have you ever seen one pull his weight on the job? No! Clowns, every one of them. Morons. Losers. How could anybody believe that superstitious crap in this day and age? Haw, haw, haw."

That is speech, but because of the circumstances and content, it rises to the level of religious persecution, and should result in criminal prosecution (or at least a good @ss-whipping).

Now suppose a college professor made those remarks to a class.

Suppose a publicly funded university decided to rename its Department of Religion, "Department of Superstitious Idiocy." Or to name every class within the Department of Religion, "Ridiculous Superstition 101," "Ridiculous Superstition 102," etc.

**So, what's your major?

**Superstitious idiocy. This semester I'm taking Ridiculous Superstition 304.

"Speech is protected. You are not protected from having your feelings hurt."

Usually I am on your side of this argument. However, there are important distinctions that must be drawn.

Suppose you have a public elementary school with one Jewish kid in it, like mine. And suppose all the other kids, and even the teachers, call him "Jew-boy," "Christ-killer," etc. etc. That's speech. Is it protected? Is that Jewish boy's freedom of religion being protected?

Speech can quite easily become persecution, especially when the speakers are in positions of authority. Can you imagine the outcry if a president were to say, "Jews are parasites and a drain on society?"

(Note: I do not personally endorse, subscribe to, or believe any of the derogatory things about Jews that are written above. They are given as purely hypothetical examples of wrongful behavior.)