Speech

Regarding your report on National Rifle Association Vice President Wayne LaPierre's combative response to criticism of his organization, I wondered whether your reporter watched the same speech I did ("Let's not let the NRA's LaPierre misdirect us with ignorance, lies about media," Dec. 21). I saw the tone of Mr. LaPierre' presentation as more pleading than combative, and far from the lashing speech described in the article. Rather than reading and listening to all the anti-gun rhetoric in the news lately, I suggest that everyone watch Mr. LaPierre's speech and judge for themselves.

Tony DellaRose and Ray Lewis are very different people. The former owns a White Marsh bar and restaurant with his brother, while Lewis gets paid to aggressively stop opposing offenses. But on the day of a Ravens game, both become motivational speakers, giving booming talks in front of excited crowds, all united by the desire to see a Ravens victory. While every football fan knows Lewis' reputation as an orator, DellaRose is much lesser known but almost as entertaining. Search YouTube for "DellaRose's Ravens" and you'll find a clip from 2009 of the restaurant's co-owner standing on the bar with a microphone in one hand and a beer in the other.

A Friday night celebration had a nice ring to it for the Loyola men's lacrosse team. One with 34 jewels, in fact. The Greyhounds received their NCAA championship rings Friday for beating Maryland, 9-3, on May 28 in Foxborough, Mass. In addition to the jewels, the bands feature a large Loyola "L" in the middle. "This is an opportunity tonight to remember the journey this team went on," coach Charley Toomey said before presenting the rings. "This is a time to remember the successful team this was. " The Greyhounds handed out team awards before the ring ceremony.

It is always reprehensible to mock anyone's religious beliefs, and it is even worse when the mockery is expected to result in violence, injury or death ("Obama defends free speech," Sept. 27). The freedom of speech exercised in the notorious anti-Islamic video "The Innocence of Muslims" is a case in point. It is tantamount to falsely yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater, which is impossible to defend as free speech. Yet in some of the Muslim countries where the outcry against the video has been loudest, the notorious anti-Semitic libel known as "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is freely sold and published.

Following is a transcript of Brooks Robinson's speech at his sculpture unveiling ceremony Saturday at Camden Yards. “Thank you, thank you, and I promise you, this will be the last 'thank you' of my career. I know Paul Blair, the last six or seven years we played together would always say, 'Well, when's your next Brooks Robinson day?' This is it Pauly, you don't have to do that anymore. Thank you very much. And I just want to say to all of you fans here, I don't like to call you fans, I like to call you friends.

The article, "Free speech clash grips U.N. " (Sept. 25) could also apply to the recent lecture at the Baltimore Council for Foreign Affairs (BCFA), where its president, Frank Burd, caved into pressure from pro-Israel groups and would not allow questions concerning the Middle East during a lecture by University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer. Even though the topic was China, Mr. Burd was evidently afraid that the professor's comments critical of Israel and U.S. policy favoring Israel would offend some of his audience so he limited discussion solely to China, something that he had never done before.

President Barack Obama's rousing defense of American free speech and the First Amendment at the United Nations this week made his country proud. In the context of rioting in the Muslim world over an anti-Islam video, the message was overdue: In a free society, even hateful messages are protected, and placing restrictions on speech helps lead to political oppression. That's not to suggest Americans endorse the video in question and its smears against the Prophet Muhammad. But the proper response to vile, awful messages is not violence, or the threat of violence, but more speech that will, as Mr. Obama observed, "lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect.

"No One Murdered Because Of This Image. " That was a recent headline from The Onion, the often hilarious parody newspaper. The image in question is really not appropriate to describe with any specificity in a family newspaper. It's quite simply disgusting. And, suffice it to say, it leaves nothing to the imagination. Four of "the most cherished figures from multiple religious faiths were depicted engaging in a lascivious sex act of considerable depravity," according to The Onion, and yet "no one was murdered, beaten, or had their lives threatened, sources reported Thursday.

Regarding your editorial, "Libya Attacks: Romney has a point" (Sept. 13), there's no debate that freedom of speech is a core value that should be defended in the United States and supported around the world. The question in this case is the context. The obvious purpose of the film insulting Islam was to incite a strong reaction from radicals in the Middle East. Why else would it have been put on the Internet? Those who distributed the film did so for reasons of hate, and this was rightly condemned by President Barack Obama.

In your editorial on the responses to the attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya, you say that the Obama administration's message should have focused on our belief in free speech for everyone ("Romney has a point," Sept. 13). I agree that it would be fine to say that one on one or at a meeting when everyone was calm. In the situation as it was, they just wanted to calm the atmosphere and calm down the people. If you were there, would you have said, "You have right to free speech, and here we are right over this wall.