<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1593729871227.png" alt="Gene Policinski is a senior fellow for the First Amendment at the Freedom Forum, and president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Institute. " />
 <figcaption>Gene Policinski is a senior fellow for the First Amendment at the Freedom Forum, and president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Institute. </figcaption>
 </figure>Dear Mr. President: Congratulations on your election victory.That’s a non-partisan congratulations. The First Amendment, with its 
45 words encompassing our core freedoms of religion, speech, press, 
assembly and petition, doesn’t take political sides.The year 2020 has seen a dramatic increase in the ways our fellow 
citizens are using the First Amendment. There’s every reason to believe 
2021 will be more of the same.By this Election Day, a record number of us exercised our right to 
vote, the ultimate expression of our rights to petition the government.Years of simmering injury, insult and resentment over blatant and 
hidden racism have boiled over into a wave of public protests, prompted 
by the repeated deaths of Black men and women at the hands of police 
officers, and rooted in economic and social systems that people of color
 see as tilted against themThe national crisis that is COVID-19 is tearing at the very fabric of
 daily life — and even as it hammers everything from employment numbers 
to how we sometimes can say farewell to the dying, the pandemic is 
sparking street demonstrations for and against health measures like 
masks and business shutdowns.I write to ask that as you consider your election victory, you keep 
these First Amendment considerations in mind — using the order of the 
five freedoms, to help organize your thoughts.Religion in the U.S. today covers a remarkably diverse form of 
beliefs and practices, unique in the world. Understandably, that creates
 ongoing conflict as overall social values and individual matters of 
conscience collide. Some call this a culture war. I hope you will think 
of it as does my Freedom Forum colleague, Dr. Charles Haynes:
 An opportunity to find common ground — focusing on those places where 
we do agree, even as we recognize and celebrate our differences.What of free speech? For nearly a century, most battles around this 
freedom focused on whether or not government could restrict or punish 
individuals for their speech. In this next presidential term, the focus 
will be on relatively new ideas: There are ideas, words or symbolic 
actions that are too dangerous to be heard, or that the right to speak 
includes a right not to listen — or to be protected from even hearing.Please keep in mind that ideas are not eliminated by silencing those 
who give voice to them. More speech, in more ways, is the better path. 
It is a proper government role to find ways to encourage diversity of 
thought, but not to become a “national nanny” or worse, an autocratic 
censor deciding what we should see, read and hear.The next generation will be ill-served to face an assuredly 
contentious world if they aren’t aware of a range of ideas, concepts and
 creeds. A need to reinforce the key positive ideals of our society for 
the future must include free discussion of where we have fallen short in
 word, actions or law in the past.A free press is being challenged by the triple tag team of economic 
loss, public mistrust and new competition. An attendant casualty has 
been our collective belief in “truth” — or at least accepted facts based
 on solid journalism, not punditry across a myriad of new information 
sources.You don’t have direct responsibility to make journalism better, but 
things are so dire you and Congress may be needed to help ensure we have
 any effective journalism at all.The number of local news outlets is plunging — and “news deserts” in 
which no local news media exists — are growing. The 
watchdog-on-government role of a free press — so vital to the informed 
citizenry needed by a democracy — cannot be allowed to simply evaporate.The unthinkable for free press advocates of not long ago — tax 
breaks, operating subsidies, support for “public” journalism as we have 
seen for public television and radio — may well become over the next 
four years unavoidable.What we do know, based on annual surveys the Freedom Forum has done 
since 1997, is that most of us support that watchdog duty. Work with 
that consensus.Assembly and petition have had rebirths. When frustrated, Americans 
always protested, on our streets and now online. Your responsibility 
here starts with listening — even when others are shouting.Yes, you must respond to those who go outside First Amendment 
protections into violence. But those responses must be tempered by the 
recognition that peaceful dissent is democracy, not disloyalty.I write knowing you and the nation face many challenges. But I also 
write with the profound hope that this letter will be a reminder that 
these core freedoms empower all of us to freely talk with each other in 
many different ways, with a goal of determining the best possible 
solutions for the greatest number of people, in the shortest amount of 
time. The First Amendment doesn’t require — or provide for — perfection,
 but it fuels democracy.With that spirit in mind, good fortune in the next four years.Gene Policinski is a senior fellow for the First Amendment at the
 Freedom Forum, and president and chief operating officer of the Freedom
 Forum Institute. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:gpolicinski@freedomforum.org" target="_blank">gpolicinski@freedomforum.org</a>, or follow him on Twitter at&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/@genefac" target="_blank">@genefac</a>.

FIRST FIVE: On behalf of the First Amendment — ‘Dear Mr. President’