Earlier this year, Carol was leading English conversation labs at the University for the more advanced English speakers. For discussion topics, she would hand out articles discussing American culture and ideas and then talk through the articles exploring new ideas and common English usage. In one class, the discussion of honesty came up and she asked the class, “What does it mean to be honest?” Most of the definitions offered by the class followed the idea that it means to say the right thing or say the correct thing, but no one offered a definition that included telling the truth. We just had to wonder about that.

Then several weeks ago, Criss was talking to a person and they were telling a story about a young family under Hoxha, the communist dictator. The young man was in the military and was sent to Montenegro for joint military exercises and was there for several weeks. Since traveling outside the country during Hoxha’s rule was almost impossible, this was a great opportunity. When the young soldier returned everyone asked him what Montenegro was like. He simple said it was nice, a very pretty mountainous area. A few weeks later, the police showed up at his house, he was arrested, tried, convicted and executed as a traitor for speaking positively about another country that could potentially be an enemy. His wife and daughter never saw him after the arrest.

Upon hearing this story, two things become very obvious. One, the puzzling responses to the honesty question becomes a bit more understandable. If you have been raised or taught by parents who lived in a period where a simple statement could be turned against you, then saying the right thing or correct thing becomes much more important than truth. Especially, if you value your life and your families life.

Secondly, we, in the states, take our freedom of speech very casually and probably need to be a bit more vigorous in defending the right of free speech even when we don’t like the message the other person is promoting.