Final Summary on Bok

Derek Bok wrote in the Boston Globe an essay about First Amendment rights. My understanding is as follows:

When I read Bok’s essay, I was trying to figure out for myself if I would have been offended either by the Confederate flag or by the swastika. This became an argument on First Amendment rights, and who decides how it should be interpreted. I would like to share my opinion.
Bok was the president of Harvard University before he wrote this essay and the issue had come up. I think there are a lot of people around today who expect others to walk carefully around them. They do not expect anyone to offend them and they will surely make it known when others cross the line.
Symbols can have so many meanings and therefore so many more interpretations. What I think a swastika stands for and what someone twenty years younger than me thinks a swastika stands for will be two different ideas. When we live in a free society, there are so many more touchy areas or subjects that a dictatorship would clarify. In those countries they are not allowed to display a Confederate flag or a swastika, it is against the law and is not done. Being in America, we need to think a little bit what others might interpret offensive and be a little more understanding. We should learn to get along with our neighbors and even just get to know our neighbors.
We are so wrapped up in our own lives that we are blind to what is going on in our cities. People don’t need to be judged by what they look like, how they dress, or what nationality they are. We are so quick to look at someone and form an impression of them and we have not even spoken to them.
Bok is writing on how to call the shots when a controversy comes up. I don’t think that a private university should have different rules on this subject than a public university. The First Amendment rights are subject to our interpretations. Each governing body has to react when controversy arises and that is their job.
All of us as human beings need to start showing some consideration of others and their right to free speech. When we disagree with something that is displayed or written in plain view, maybe we could talk with the person who wrote or displayed this and come up with a new understanding of each other’s beliefs.
As Bok says in his last paragraph, we should try to talk with each other, come to an understanding and stop all of the fighting and offensive behavior. We could find a compromise that would at least stop us from arguing. I was in the military and these kind of things came up all of the time. Yes, there were some fights, there were some punches thrown, and lots of negative words were shouted at each other. We had to find a way to work together no matter who you shared a foxhole with. It can be done and sometimes it is just an agreement to disagree. Respect each other for who we are and try not to let personal differences create fights that last for eternity.