Letter: Right to free speech not undermined

Saturday, June 10, 2006 | 7:19 a.m.

I am trying very hard to understand the argument presented by Allen Dohra in his June 8 letter in support of his contention that we have lost the constitutional right to freedom of speech.

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that (a) global warming is occurring, (b) man is largely responsible, (c) warming in Yellowstone National Park has produced an infestation of bark beetles that is killing the trees, and (d) this has adversely affected his day-to-day life, how in the world does this demonstrate that we have lost our constitutional right to freedom of speech?

Mr. Dohra contends that some (unspecified) number of scientists have uniformly stated that global warming is occurring and man is responsible, but that not one of them will go on record with regard to their concerns in a global warming documentary he is working on. He implies that this is because of censorship by the Bush administration.

Yet every time I turn around I see some commentary by this scientist or that expressing concern about global warming. It just may be that those scientists his people are interacting with are uncomfortable with the approach taken in the proposed documentary and do not want to be associated with it. Al Gore certainly does not have a problem with getting scientists to speak out about global warming.

If we have indeed lost our constitutional right to free speech as Mr. Dohra alleges, he should be contacting the ACLU and notifying them of this remarkable fact. I'm sure they would be interested in this, since a basic reason for their activities is to protect freedom of speech.

Ed Walterscheid, Las Vegas