No right to insult public without providing proof

Your issue of Nov. 18 reports on the Central Bucks School Board hearings of Nov. 9, at which a certain person expressed frankly antisemitic views, during which the president of the board stated that the person had the right to express those sentiments.
Yes, in our country one has the right to free expression, no matter how dastardly the content. And yet, there are limits.
Does one have the right to yell Fire in a crowded room? Does one have the right to insult a segment of the population at a public meeting without a demand by the presiding officer for proof or basis in fact?

What if the person at the school board meeting had condemned practicing Christians for some supposed crime? Would the president of the board have accepted that without condemning it? I doubt it.
The United States is based on the idea that all peoples deserve respect, and that government is based on civil discourse. The president of the Central Bucks School Board obviously does not agree with those principles. For shame!

Stanley A Plotkin M.D., Doylestown

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