The Price of Silence: Why America Must Defend Free Speech Before It’s Too Late
By Sophia A. Nelson, Esq., Founder of the Redefining Freedom Center
As we reflect on the 24th anniversary of September 11, 2001, I am deeply worried about where America is today. On that terrible morning, we suffered a devastating attack on our soil — but what followed was a remarkable moment of unity. We rallied together as Americans. We stood with our president, George W. Bush. We put aside partisanship, fear, and division to declare with one voice: we will not be broken.
Two decades later, I fear we have lost that spirit. We are fractured, suspicious, and too often consumed by rage at one another. The threat to our democracy now comes not only from without but from within.
I know something about what happens when disagreement turns toxic. In 2021, while serving as a scholar at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, I asked a civil question on Twitter. DC Comics had introduced a new LGBTQ character, and I asked — as a Christian, and as someone who values parental rights — What would Christian parents say if their children brought home this new comic book instead of the traditional DC Comic characters?
That was it. A question. Not an attack. Not on campus. Not in a classroom. But the uproar was swift and devastating. I was condemned, vilified, and professionally ruined. My reputation as a professor was destroyed. Columns I had been writing for national outlets for years, for USATODAY, the Washington Post, and others, were cancelled. Speaking invitations disappeared. My business lost 75% of its income. Worst of all, I received threats to my life, simply for daring to raise a question.
What should have been a moment of civil discourse became a trial by rage. And now, in 2025, this climate of rage has metastasized into political violence. The assassination of commentator Charlie Kirk in Utah and the tragic killing of Melissa Hortman and her husband in Minnesota are not isolated tragedies. They are symptoms of a democracy that has forgotten how to disagree without destruction.
As we stand in year 249 of the American experiment, on the eve of our nation’s 250th birthday, we must remember what freedom truly means. It is not the absence of conflict — it is the presence of respect, even in conflict. It is the courage to allow speech we dislike, to permit questions we might find uncomfortable, to debate rather than destroy.
At the Redefining Freedom Center, we call on universities to once again be bastions of open dialogue — training grounds for young Americans to learn not how to silence but how to listen. We call on leaders and citizens alike to reject political violence in every form. We want to work with you. And help to bridge the divides that are threatening to destroy our great Republic.
Because if we cannot defend the right to speak, if we cannot resist the urge to cancel and condemn, if we cannot disagree without violence — then America is lost in year 249, before we ever reach 250.
Now is the time to choose unity again. Not uniformity of thought, but unity of purpose: to safeguard freedom, to protect democracy, and to ensure that the next generation inherits not a broken republic but a stronger one.
Sophia A. Nelson
Founder and Chairman
