I have always been interested in the constitutional rights and how they came to be throughout the history of the

United States. I find the First Amendment to be very interesting because it appears that we only partially live up to the rights guaranteed to us in the constitution. Over time I have noticed that people are continuously punished and censored by the government, not only in the United States, but in other countries around the world as well. I find this very interesting because many countries are entitled to the right of freedom of speech, yet continue to be silenced, discriminated against, and punished for openly voicing their opinions as their right to speech entitles them to do. I researched the First Amendment by reading books and several website articles, as well as the First Amendment itself, in order to get a good gist of what it was about and all that was included in it. Additional websites I went to provided me with example of situations where our right to free speech is limited in our world today and in previous times throughout history. Some key websites consisted of debates among people which allowed me to get a good insight on the different opinions of ordinary people about our right to free speech and its government limitations. I chose to present my information in the form of a website because I felt it would be much easier for those reading my project to understand and fully process all of the information if they were able to read it as well as having pictures. I first gathered information about the First Amendment to provide a short background of what the Right to Free Speech is. I then provided categories based upon what I felt was important about the debate of free speech and its restrictions today. I decided it would be best to start with the actual debate and then proceed on to how restrictions and censorship affect us as Americans today.

The National History Day theme was Rights and Responsibilities. I thought the topic of the right to free speech fit in to this theme perfectly because there has been a great debate over what is included in our right to free speech. Our rights have changed as we have advanced and progressed as a country and as a human civilization in general. This topic also contributes to the responsibilities portion of the theme. We are responsible for our actions. Though we have to right to openly voice our opinions, we are still entitled to do them in a manner that will refrain from causing an uproar among others and intentionally offending them by what we do and how we say it.