Put on a Public Face

Whenever we venture outside our homes and enter the public arena we are obligated as citizens to put on a public face. This public face, whether it is a genuine reflection of our inner selves or not, must offer those we encounter outside of our homes the guarantee of respect. Laws cannot make us like or love others but we can be required to respect everyone in all our public encounters with them.

Wearing a public face does not deny us the guarantee of freedom of speech as citizens of a free society. Nor does wearing a public face suggest that we are phony and surreptitious and therefore not genuine in our behavior. It merely suggests that freedom of speech means very little if it denies others the right to feel safe and respected as human beings.

There is always room for your real face when you are alone or with others who freely tolerate the real you. And if it should one day happen that your real face and your public face become the same face, then you have become an enlightened citizen whose crowning glory is simply being yourself.