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Anthony Salvagno9/3/08I have a friend (who we shall name Harry to protect his identity) who has noproblem telling it like it is. He is the kind of person that will tell you he has aproblem with something and why he has this problem without pulling “anypunches.” There are many instances where this attitude has been ablessing, but there are the few moments when he takes the meaningfreedom of speech a little too far. The result of this mentality has produced afree flow of words that pretty much has no screening process. Therearesome times when Harry will say something that will offend a personwithin earshot. (I’d like to note that while I have never been the subject of the offense, I can see why such parties would be offended.)Harassment (and sexual in particular) can be considered a seriousethical debate. It may not seem like it on the surface, but there are in facttwo sides to this coin. On the one hand (and generally the obvious stance)people should be allowed to socially interact without being subject touncomfortable feelings (or possibly worse). Everyone is allowed to their rightof happiness as stated in the Constitution, and in some cases thissatisfaction can be stripped from a person during a conversation. In the caseof sexual harassment, even more than happiness can be taken from aperson, but for now let’s just stick with the basic conversational aspect of harassment and exclude all the other forms.
 
What could the argument against be? On this side we can say, “Whatabout a person’s freedom of speech?” In the case of Harry, he exercises thisright at will and perhaps even excessively. However, he is still entitled tothat right no matter what!Who gets to determine which person has more right over the other?Suppose Harry is locked in a room with 20 people of a similar backgroundand they are hostile. He really wants to say something that may offend thegroup. He can choose to say what he wants, but must then suffer theconsequences of violence. That outcome does not leave anyone happy,except that some of the offended party might be a little satisfied. In theother case, Harry keeps his words to himself and the room is a little lesstense, but Harry is not content. This example is a little extreme, but let’slook at another.Suppose Harry is working in the lab with a person, named Stacy. Oneday Harry says something that offends Stacy. She kindly tells him that wasinappropriate, but there is some awkward tension after that moment and itbecomes a difficult working environment. From that moment on Harry isafraid to talk to Stacy because he feels he may offend her again. These twoneed to work together, but now there is some tension between the two, itbecomes hard to work, and the situation escalates from there.In the first case it is clear that Harry not having said anything would bethe better choice for everyone, but in the second case if Harry doesn’t feelhe can express himself he may become resentful and may even feel he
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