I read in disbelief the article about the recent legislative breakfast held at the Chamber of Commerce. An anonymous source presented a question to our local legislative delegation asking how they (the government) could get the chairman of the Republican Party to tone down his rhetoric about the school board.

I was further shocked to read Representative Jack Murphy actually answered the question. The correct answer is thankfully our Constitution does not grant the government authority to censor the speech of its citizens. Instead, Mr. Murphy actually agreed to the task at hand perhaps indicating he believes the government does have the authority to censor speech.

Apparently, Mr. Murphy does not understand that in our representative form of government, legislators are in office only to make laws and certainly are not in office to dictate thoughts and speech of its citizens. Censorship is the cornerstone of totalitarian governments, but the freedoms we cherish in America are guaranteed by our legal documents such as the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

Mr. Murphy does not need to spend much time looking for the correct answer, as it is in the First Amendment to our Constitution which limits our government but gives the rights to the people for free speech. My fear is that since Mr. Murphy has just learned his role as a legislator is to make laws, he might introduce legislation granting our government the right to censor speech. It is hard to believe that we live in a day when people have become so complacent they only yawn as an elected official attempts to monitor speech.

Kelley Smith