Intellectual Freedom

Josiah supports and would sponsor legislation to protect Ohioans' natural right to intellectual freedom.

Intellectual freedom is: a) the free flow of information and b) the right to form one's own beliefs/thoughts free of discrimination and persecution.

Over the past two years, we have witnessed previously unfathomable amounts of growth in both the size and scope of government. We now find ourselves in a society which advances and promotes the opinion of a select group experts and individuals (the perceived majority) while silencing dissenting voices/perspectives. Josiah believes the primary goal of government should be to ensure equal opportunity for each individual to consume and share information - not serve as a filter to promote bureaucratic viewpoints.

The founding fathers specifically designed our system of government to: a) protect the natural rights of the individual from a newly formed centralized government and b) protect the minority from the "tyranny of the majority." The First Amendment within the Bill of Rights explicitly protects freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition one's government for redress of grievances. Josiah believes that intellectual freedom is inherent within the First Amendment as there can be no freedom of speech or individual expression without intellectual freedom - free of both discrimination and persecution.

Ohio's general assemble should reaffirm the natural right of intellectual freedom. No government or person should have the authority to single out and discriminate against another solely on the basis of their individually formed thoughts and opinions.

** The Ohio Revised Code defines corporations, societies, associations, and natural persons as a "person" - ORC 1701 (G)

"Safety of our civilization lies in making freedom of thought and freedom of speech vital, vivid features of life" and condemns "[r]estriction of free thought and free speech," labeling it "the most dangerous of all subversions," and an "un-American act." - Supreme Court Justice William Douglas

The US Constitution's authors "recognized the significance of man's spiritual nature, his feelings, and his intellect" and "sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations." - Justice Brandeis