a modern-day mr. smith..?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

How thankful we should be for freedom of speech.  Even here in America, freedom of speech has been suppressed even in the not-so-distant future.  In the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, freedom of speech and of the press is all but crushed by a powerful political machine when a senator attempts to expose corruption in Congress.  Senator Smith decides to filibuster, hoping that it will give enough time for his words to reach the American public.  Unfortunately, the political "Taylor" machine controls all the major newspapers in Smith's home state, so all that gets printed are lies.  Newspapers with "Stop Smith" are being churned out by the thousands while kids who are trying to spread the truth are getting pushed around and their red wagons are being run over.

I admit it, I sometimes tire of the ways people use their first amendment rights; some of which, frankly, I doubt the founders would put up with.  However, I believe that the freedom to speak that our nation enjoys - and at times abuses - is light years ahead of what it replaced.

Who are the "Mr. Smiths" of the 21st century?  One self-proclaimed Mr. Smith is known as Wikileaks.  The goal of Wikileaks is "to bring important news and information to the public."  Their website has a list of ways they have exposed corruption in the form of:

 War, killings, torture and detention 
 Government, trade and corporate transparency 
 Suppression of free speech and a free press 
 Diplomacy, spying and (counter-)intelligence 
 Ecology, climate, nature and sciences 
 Corruption, finance, taxes, trading 
 Censorship technology and internet filtering 
 Cults and other religious organizations 
 Abuse, violence, violation

 Wikileaks claims to be all about spreading truth, but should all truth be spread?  What about classified truth? In Bradley Manning's case, was he only spreading truth when he leaked over 90,000 intelligence reports?  Openness is great, but it has its limits.  In some cases, perhaps secrets keep us safe.