Why promoting innovation is a pivotal value in free expression

Free expression is a crucial right that all American's are given from the day they take their first breath to the moment they give their last. Without the freedom to speak, be, and feel how we truly are inside, we cannot call ourselves a democracy under the words of our foundation that is the US Constitution. With the term 'free expression' protected under the first amendment, there are eight established values that go deeper as to what this freedom of expression truly holds. Within those eight values, there is one that sticks out to me among the rest. This is the right of promoting innovation through free speech.

Scholar Jack Balkin said it best in his piece Living Originalism, that a community who chooses to allow its people the right of free speech is most likely to be more creative, energized, and fulfilling in many more ways than one, as it instills the right for diversity and acceptance. For those who live outside of the United States and have the desire to emigrate here in search of "the American Dream", they are looking for the freedom of starting a new life, of following their wildest visions, and in hopes of reaching their full potential. None of which can be done if the government and society were not willing to allow for new and creative ideas from its people. I cannot imagine a life where we have everything at our fingertips: resources, advancements, and brilliant minds, but were then told we are not free to use these things to better ourselves and the world around us.

Promoting innovation is precisely the value that sets the United States apart from any other country on the planet. Because of the American people's constant drive to be the best, to create like no other, and to reach advancements never seen before, we are at the forefront of creation and innovation in fields like technology, medicine, and economics, to just name a few. We have leaders in our country who have the minds to change the world as we know it to currently be, and without our constitutional right to think and produce, we would not be skyrocketing into the future as each decade passes.

I am thankful to the 39 brilliant men who signed the United States Constitution and began giving us the standards with which each American feels entitled to have. Without the roots which tell us that we should promote tolerance and innovation, participate in self-government and a marketplace of ideas, allow for individual self-fulfillment and stable change, and finally protect ourselves through dissent and by checking on our government powers, we would not be able to call ourselves a Free Nation.