Are we losing our freedom of speech?

Everywhere I look, the concept of free speech is getting a workout. A food truck, a cake, a flag — all have stirred up emotions recently here in Indiana.

Of course, the First Amendment applies only to freedom of speech as it pertains to government action. That’s why you hear people say, “freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.”

But I’m tired of how society has become a game of gotcha. It’s practically a national pastime to drag people online and call for their firing over their opinion.

Even a food truck at the Statehouse market can’t have a little fun with a slogan without getting kicked out because the phrase offended someone’s fragile sensibilities.

The Smash Daddy’s Burgers, Fries, Etc. food truck had been showing up to the market for almost two years. On the side of the truck is the slogan, “you’ll love our meat in your mouth.”

Yes, it’s sexual innuendo. No different than “where’s the beef” was in the 1980s for Wendy’s. There’s a company that advertises fudge and candy in the most sophomoric way possible on billboards in Indiana but it hasn’t been stopped from operating.

But suddenly after someone complained — not in writing, by the way — the truck was told not to return by the Indiana State Personnel Department.

Talk about an overreaction. If you don’t want to eat there, then fine. But it was a place that always had a line and the complainers cost the truck’s owner thousands in revenue.

That’s where we are at as a society?

The food truck owner might have a legal case since the government was involved and the phrase doesn’t count as obscenity.

Calling for jobs

But that’s not the only free-speech issue popping up lately.

Let’s take about the cake. A comedian and guest lecturer at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., took a crass cake to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office offering “congratudolences” after his death. She also posted harsh criticism against Graham.

It was tacky and awful and, of course, I don’t approve. But now many people want her fired from her adjunct position at Indiana University teaching one law school course.

In a letter addressed to IU President Pamela Whitten and the dean of the university’s McKinney law school in Indianapolis, the IndyStar reported that Republican U.S. Reps. Marlin Stutzman and Mark Messmer said Elizabeth Booker Houston should be fired for comments they describe as “vile and cruel” and that violate the university’s handbook.

Heck, Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith went further and said IU should lose all its state funding.

This call is similar to what colleges and universities faced after Charlie Kirk was killed and some employees were outed for inappropriate comments. Ball State University did fire an employee over a social media post, but she sued and won a $225,000 settlement.

Some are angry that Ball State settled instead of buttressing the legal case for future firings.

And then we have Attorney General Todd Rokita, who continues to post photos and social media rants against teachers in Indiana and their classroom décor. One recently highlighted a Perry Meridian High School classroom that has signs supporting LGBTQ+ rights, Black Lives Matter and more.

Others pointed out the flags and decoration encouraged civility and love for one another.

Rokita provided no information in his tweet or on the Eyes on Education portal about the veracity of the photos. Perry Township Schools Superintendent Patrick Spray clarified to the Capital Chronicle that the photos are not recent. He said the teacher resigned last school year for reasons unrelated to the issue.

More importantly, he provided context about the photos, noting that the Black Lives Matter and Free Myanmar photos are of student art.

“That is a classroom that receives newcomers to the country, so primarily refugees … and they are allowed to represent their thoughts and feelings in the classroom,” he said. “Now, I will say that we have worked with our staff and talked about keeping political things out of the classroom, especially if they don’t adhere to the curriculum being taught. We’ve just told them it’s not worth the negative attention you may receive as an individual.”

Another day, another attack on freedom of speech. I miss the days when we worried more about our own lives than everyone else’s. I miss when we had tolerance for other viewpoints — even the distasteful ones.