For the fourth of July, EduWonk’s guest blogger Bryan Hassel offered some thoughts from former American presidents on education and free speech. How about another along those lines?

[W]e seek a free flow of information…we are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of it’s people.

— John F. Kennedy

The quote was borrowed from Richard Belzer writing on the Huffington Post.