Only a few weeks ago did the terrorist attacks in Paris against the Charlie Hebdo newspaper hit the world and make us wonder, Does freedom of speech give us the right to offend others? Many offensive things have been said about many important figures to people, but this was a real eye opener after the temper tantrums were thrown by the Islamic extremists who were willing to murder people to defend their sacred prophet, Muhammad.  After all, words are just sounds, and can't physically hurt you. Freedom of speech is a constitutional right, well, at least in the United States. So I think that Freedom of speech gives you the right to say whatever you want, even if someone finds it offensive.  

One reason that I think that freedom of speech gives you the right to say whatever you want is because words are just sounds and they can't physically hurt you. If you go up to someone and say they’re ugly, you can’t control how they choose to deal with that. It’s not your fault if it hurts their feelings. They chose to feel sad. You can't say “feel bad” and it will happen. We have free will, after all. And no matter what you say, someone in the world will find a way to find it offensive. So, if you take away our right to make fun of someone’s religion, then it will be race, and then sexuality, and then you won't be able to say anything, and instead of the dark ages, or the middle ages, it will be the silent ages. How boring. That is one of the reasons why I think freedom of speech gives you the right to offend someone.

Another reason why I think freedom of speech gives you the right to offend people is because freedom of speech is a constitutional right. Its even the First Amendment. Our Founding Fathers gave us the right to say whatever we want. If you think about it, they didn't have this right. The king during the time wasn’t giving them the right, and he was killing them because of it. So, they wanted us to have that right. They specifically said “Congress shall make no law prohibiting the exercise of freedom of speech.” If that doesn't say freedom of speech, I don't know what does.     

Someone may argue that offending someone is rude and should not be allowed. And I agree with that it can hurt someones feelings. But freedom of speech is a right, and it's our right. I agree that offending someone is rude, and you shouldn't do it purposefully. But, if someone wants to do it, I'm not saying its right, but they have the right. So, you have freedom of speech, and can say anything you want, even if it offends someone. It's called freedom, after all. When would they give us freedom of speech if we can't use it?