Which is you favorite American Freedom? You know, those principles that our country is based on, those eloquent words in our most precious documents. Free Speech perhaps? The Declaration Of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights equate Free Speech to Free Society, but don’t tell that to Jim Neugent.

There is currently a high-visibility battle over the right to display the Ten Commandments on government property. The Chief Justice in Alabama was removed after claiming guidance from a Higher Authority, and this could be headed to the Supreme Court. But last week I was really taken aback by a more radical, more disturbing free-speech vs religion issue.

In my e-mail was one of those chain-type letters that multiply to spam-esqe proportions. It was sent by a friend, but obviously had been in cyber-space for some time, since it dealt with a television show aired months ago. As is often the case with these letters, it is attributed to a name in a city, but with no actual way to confirm it’s origin. The writer urges us to “resend this to everyone in your mailbox”, but does not tell us who he really is.

The writer - “Jim Neugent of Childress, Texas” - is quite upset that ABC Television aired an episode of The Practice that dealt with a woman seeking to marry another woman. He e-mailed ABC, and, apparently, sent copies to a good portion of the country. Jim felt that ABC should not even have allowed the issue into the show, because by doing so the network was “attempt(ing) to convince the world that homosexuality is OK”.

Then Jim unloads the big gun: “Read the first chapter of Romans (that’s in the Bible) and see what the apostle Paul had to say about it...He, God, and Jesus were all ‘gay bashers’. What if she’d fallen in love with her cocker spaniel?” (And Jim thinks ABC is twisted???)

There are many shows today featuring gay characters. Queer Eye, Will and Grace, It’s Relative, Six Feet Under, Queer as Folk, Sex and the City. Even cartoons like The Simpsons and South Park. So why did Jim pick on one episode of The Practice? Let’s ask him.

Having worked in television news, I have seen bitter e-mail campaigns denouncing ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, or CNN. Most are from anonymous or mysterious people who are very upset to discover that not everyone shares their personal views of the world. Anyone can send these e-mails, using any name, so locating the author can be a challenge.

I tried. I could only find one Jim Neugent in all of Texas, hundreds of miles from Childress. It wasn’t him. Ditto the Jim Neugent in Mena, Arkansas. Perhaps Jimbo forgot his address, or his home state, or he has an unlisted life. The fact that the author is either fictitious, or has made himself really hard to find after asking for our support, should tell you something. But if we can’t find him, let’s focus on the subject he raises, the free-speech right to present an idea for public thought and discussion.

Jim doesn’t just oppose homosexuality, he opposes the right to even publicly raise the subject. Can even devoutly religious people agree with this? If you don’t lead a gay/lesbian lifestyle, fine. If you don’t think that others should, fine again. If you don’t want to watch The Practice, try one of the other 200 or so channels. But can we go so far as to say that the issue won’t even be discussed? An argument that can’t stand the light of day is not a very strong one.

It doesn’t matter whether a same-sex marriage is permitted or denied in a made-for-TV courtroom. It doesn’t matter who wins in the contrived legal battle fought by actors. What does matter is that BOTH sides of an issue are aired, so people can make up their own minds. In this case, ABC doesn’t even produce The Practice. They buy it from David E. Kelly Productions, a company that has been very successful in dealing with controversial legal/social topics in several highly-rated TV shows. Highly-rated means tens of millions of viewers watch each week. Apparently Jim will no longer be one of them. He has already made up his mind.

Jim, or whoever DID write the e-mail, has used the Internet (and made a plea to The Arkansas Democrat newspaper) to publicize his anti-ABC campaign. Does anyone besides me see a free-speech double standard here? Is it verboten for the issue to be debated on television, but OK for Jim to spread his gospel in other media?

Polls now show that 40 percent of Americans approve, and just more than half are opposed. President Bush expressed his opinion, saying that he respected homosexuals, but did not approve of same-sex marriage. With even the Big W making headlines, no one was questioning the right to talk about the issue. Except Jim.