Speech is not absolute

Recently, a middle-aged white couple was kicked off a JetBlue flight from West Palm Beach, Florida to Newark, New Jersey, for behaving obnoxiously and spewing out vulgar and homophobic slurs at the crew and passengers. The woman claimed that her filthy words and obnoxious behavior were protected by her right to free speech and that her being kicked off the plane was evidence that "free speech is dead" in America. Before being forced out of the plane, she shouted, "We're going to get [kicked] off the plane because we're Trump supporters! Seriously, I really think that's what it is!" Her husband cursed the crew with a filthy phrase and said, "Hey buddy, I guarantee, I have more money than you."

Trump would be very proud of this couple. He might even invite them to one of his rallies in order to display them as his cultists, as he once did the self-proclaimed "deplorable" people.

The fact is, this couple could very well be your friendly, kind and helpful next-door neighbors. The snarling and misbehaving people you see at Trump rallies were once decent and wonderful people you would have loved to break bread with. You would have never guessed that they were capable of such obnoxious, hateful and unruly behavior in public. Obviously, they are ignorant of the fact that freedom of expression is not absolute and that their cult leader is clueless about the Constitution and law as evidenced by his unruly behavior even as the former president.

K.P.S. KAMATH, Cape Girardeau