"GSUSA responded that some $19,000 had been raised in Minnesota by the girl scout duck shoot, and therefore, it could not be cancelled.

Anne Muller, a leading activist in New Jersey and Maryland, called GSUSA, laying down that the damage would be far in excess of $19,000, and it would be national in scope, were the duck shoot in Minnesota to go ahead."

This could be called blackmail on the part of Anne Muller and might even leave her open to criminal charges under the "Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA).

But freedom of speech means that both sides speak and citizens decide who they believe and who agree with and who they support with their money. That is the most basic and most important safeguard of the citizen from the power of the state (or the power of the wealthy) in a free society.

Once, the only way the weak could be heard was with their own voice, which was easily silenced by imprisonment or by killing the speaker. Then printing presses gave one person thousands of voices. Now the internet gives one person millions of voices. One day, the internet will force real transparency on every person and agency and government in the world. There will be no more political deals behind closed doors because everything will be leaked to the internet, no more spy agencies because everyone will know what only the spies used to know. No government will be able to steal and tyrannize and lie. You can see the future by looking back.

Though less so with every passing century, the balance is still weighted in favour of the powerful. A small voice with little money against a big voice with millions of dollars to hire P.R. and lawyers is still able to be silenced, but the internet is closing that ethical gap too.

In a real democracy, every voice would be equally heard. Newspapers that are controlled by investors and "friends" sometimes abrogate their duty to be the defenders of speech and truth. The internet - so far - is the level playing field that civilization has been moving toward since the beginning of speech.