Freedom of speech is something everyone has under the 1st amendment. However, the 1st amendment does not cover “Hate Speech”.Something that has been around for a long time that covers freedom of speech is the Bill of Rights which states , “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” A soldier passing is a time to pay our respects to everything they have done for our country. But Westboro Baptist Church had something else in mind. They thought instead of paying their respect to the fallen soldier they would protest at his funeral. They felt that they were doing nothing wrong, but having a chance to voice their opinion using the First Amendment as there reasoning to do so at his funeral. When word got out about what they were planning to do. The community came together of nearly 2,000 supporters who planned to create a human barrier/ shield to protect the family of the fallen soldier. When it came to the day of the funeral the WBC never even showed. This shows that if we all stand together we can stand up for what’s right. The First Amendment does not cover speech that negatively targets people based on personal traits like religion or race. However, sometimes hate speech can also be considered “fighting words” or a threat. In those cases, hate speech would be excluded from protections offered by the First Amendment. Also, it influences how society views certain subjects/ thing. Another reason is that freedom of speech only goes so far when it comes to hate speech. The First Amendment gives people the right to have freedom of speech. But it doesn’t give them the right to negatively target people based on their personal traits like religion or race. In the United States the only two types of hate speeches that are likely to elicit an imminent fight and those that are truly threatening. Even though the First Amendment seems cut and dried. In the course of interpreting the amendment, courts have decided that certain speech does not fall under protections offered by the first amendment. So this is why the first amendment doesn’t cover hate speech. Also, freedom of speech influences how society views certain subjects/ things. In society freedom of speech gives people a chance to have a voice on what they think is important. But sometimes there voice might influence bad things and if they have people behind them that could lead to drastic measures. But like every subject, there’s a positive and negative part of it. For example, Hitler voiced what he thought was right and had people following behind him to have thousands of people’s lives get taken from them. Just because they thought he was right and followed what he had to say. A positive to freedom of speech is like when Martin Luther King stood up for what he thought was right. He tried to get justice for all the African Americans getting treated differently than the Caucasian. He wanted for them to be equal and to be treated with respect. He fought till he died for equal rights and showed people that it’s not bad to stand up for what’s right. This shows that sticking up for what’s right goes a long way. Some may argue that they have their rights to freedom of speech so it doesn’t matter if they use hate speech. Since we’re in the land of the free we are to voice our opinion “freely”.However, the first amendment states that it does not cover speech that negatively targets people based on their personal traits like religion or race. So, yes you have a right to freedom of speech, But that doesn’t allow you to use hate speech and think it’s the same thing. So the main point i’m trying to get across is that people learn the difference between freedom of speech and hate speech. Freedom of speech is something that everyone has even if you don’t use it for the right reasons. Hate speech is mostly used to put down a subject/person. When something is made out to be bad society start to see it differently like it’s something to worry about or something to look out for. It could be as little as someone’s race just think how a little thing as someone’s skin tone can make people view them differently. Just because society might view them as bad people just from the stereotypes put out there by others. Next time you speak think “Is this going to improve the way people look at this subject or am I just bringing down this subject and making it more that is it”.