Protect free speech

Former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, recently said that the United States might have to consider restrictions on Americans' freedom of speech if terrorists use free speech and the Internet to recruit members.

I will almost always staunchly object to restrictions to freedom of speech under any circumstances, primarily because I find it hard to trust my basic freedoms to the government in hopes that they will exercise self-control. The Patriot Act is one recent example of Americans' stupefying willingness to give up their rights to privacy and due process.

Gingrich isn't making any friends over his recent statement but I understand where he's coming from - if the Internet and free speech are making it easy for terrorists to target Americans, certain restrictions may need to be put in place.

I think the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act give the president a lot of freedom to handle terrorist activity. To suggest that free speech may have to be curtailed, especially from someone like Gingrich, flies in the face of reasonably skeptical Americans.

Leave our basic freedoms alone, many of them have already been usurped.