| I reserve the right to be opinionated, to speak, to | | | | And I freely extend the same right to you. |
| strongly hold ideas, ideals or ideologies, and to | | | | *** |
| advocate them. | | | | Somewhere, sometime, someone decided that public |
| I reserve the right to make truth claims, to hold | | | | debate and politics meant you had to assert you knew |
| positions even if others may take offense. But I will not | | | | everything, that your worldview had to be simple, |
| abuse others. | | | | complete and perfectly ordered, and that everything |
| I reserve the right to be idealistic, optimistic, not cynical | | | | your opponents thought and said was just spin and lies. |
| or jaded, nor comfortably relativistic or postmodern. | | | | Well the world is not simple, and my views on it are |
| Others are free to be any of these. | | | | not simple either. I am passionate about some things, |
| I reserve the right to believe in things for which there is | | | | interested in many things, and often ambivalent or |
| more hope than evidence. | | | | conflicted over other things. It is a shame that more of |
| I reserve the right to be wrong. | | | | our public figures do not freely assert the right to |
| I reserve the right to experiment with ideas that I am | | | | change their minds, to disagree respectfully, to |
| not sure about. I reserve the right to more strongly | | | | sometimes be wrong, or to sometimes be silent. |
| advocate ideas than I actually feel. | | | | Silence from pundits and politicians - wouldn't that be a |
| I reserve the right to change my mind as the world | | | | change! |
| changes. | | | | This bill of rights is fundamentally about the purposes |
| I reserve the right to hold ambiguous, complex and | | | | of civil society and civil discourse and public debate. |
| sometimes contradictory ideas or ideals in complicated | | | | You would probably write a slightly different set of |
| circumstances. I have not figured everything out; I | | | | rights for yourself in order to frame, develop and |
| never will. | | | | express your ideas. But that is exactly the point. We |
| I reserve the right to advocate policies in one time or | | | | may all speak. By speaking and writing and publishing, |
| situation, and oppose similar policies in other times or | | | | we grapple with the world and its knotted problems. If |
| situations, especially if those policies - upon testing | | | | the world's problems were simple, then smart people |
| them - turn out to be ineffective or damaging. | | | | would have solved them a long time ago. The world's |
| I reserve the right to compromise to achieve good, but | | | | problems, conflicts and tragedies are fraught with |
| not perfect, solutions to bad problems. | | | | ambiguity and differing perspectives. |
| I reserve the right to hold ideas that do not fit orthodox | | | | The power of civil society is the democratic power of |
| ideological molds. I refuse to be defined by others' | | | | multitudes speaking, discussing, testing and trying ideas. |
| categories or philosophies or terms. | | | | As one set of policies proves itself less effective, we |
| I reserve the right to be a hypocrite - if what you | | | | try others. Some of the proposed ideas, policies or |
| mean by hypocrisy is to really believe in something and | | | | solutions are bound to be wrong-headed, or foolish, or |
| advocate it, but not always be able to live up to it. | | | | just not work. In that case I hope I will disagree. If they |
| I reserve the right to disagree with you, to disagree | | | | were my ideas, my speech, or my advocacy, then I |
| with my friends, to disagree with anyone (maybe even | | | | take responsibility for them. Then I may admit I was |
| myself in part). I reserve the right to voice that | | | | wrong and change my mind. In many cases, we will |
| disagreement openly, but respectfully, by speaking | | | | simply have to disagree. |
| energetically, incisively, sometimes passionately, but not | | | | I reserve the right to have opinions and passionately |
| abusively. | | | | advocate them, to believe in idealistic positions, to |
| I reserve the right to sometimes be silent - to not have | | | | sometimes be wrong, to change my mind, to |
| an opinion or an answer, to not advocate a position, to | | | | compromise, to disagree with others, and to |
| not define myself, to not assert expertise. I am not | | | | sometimes be silent. |
| obliged to weigh in on everything. | | | | |