Freedom of speech is a hallmark of being American.

So important, it is ensured and enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The First Amendment covers a lot of ground. Shame it doesn’t mention listening.

America could use an amendment about listening to one another.

There is a whole lot of speech in the American forum but not much listening.

An amendment forcing people to listen to one another would be an abridgment of rights but a lot of Americans act like there is a law in place that forbids listening to each other.

Often as soon as someone speaks, posts on social media or a news report is filed by a media source that is not “our” media source, we tune it out, we think of what our answer will be, we counter speech with more speech.

We ignore people immediately, or react immediately, if their views don’t match our views. We reply with knee-jerk responses of name calling, or yelling, or ALL CAPS debate; we hear only the name calling and think of a derogatory term to hurl back.

We do not listen to one another. We counter freedom of speech with more freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is a good thing; however, speech without listening is not conversation, it is not dialogue. It is only noise. Especially at a time when people have already made a decision of what they believe, sadly, it seems, without fully listening to what they are saying themselves, let alone what someone with an opposing view is saying.

Listening is an important component of freedom of speech. It’s almost like that Spider-Man line – “with great power comes great responsibility.” With the freedom of speech comes the responsibility to listen. Of course, that idea goes unsaid, which is funny because “unsaid” is how listening works.

Listening doesn’t mean that people should just listen to your opinion. Listening to your opinion is only part of it. Listening also means listening to the other person’s opinion. Not just hearing words or terms that trigger an outraged response but hearing the heart of another person’s message.

Listening is not compliance. Listening is not acceptance of opposing ideas. It is not acceptance of abhorrent ideas. Listening is a matter of respect, reflection and understanding. Listening is not capitulation. Nor is it a commitment to silence.

One thing I learned from interviewing people for nearly 40 years in the newspaper business is listening usually leads to further questions rather than responding in blanket statements.

Often, when someone says they believe a certain thing, the appropriate response isn’t immediately sharing your views but asking a question as simple as “why?” Not only does that next answer help you better understand a person and their views, it often causes the person to more deeply reflect on the reasons behind their views … but they, in turn, must truly listen to even a short – but not simple – question like “why?”

But why should we listen? If we truly believe what we are saying, if we feel we have listened to the people who speak to what we want to believe, if we feel that we are right in our beliefs, why should we listen to someone whose views are different?

So far, being American means we are free to believe what we want to believe. Say what we want to say.

In his book, “Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI,” Yuval Noah Harari notes, “Democracies die not only when people are not free to talk but also when people are not willing or able to listen.”

When our leaders are unable to persuade each other to compromise, when we as citizens are unable to persuade each other to better understand one another, then freedom of speech is no longer exercising a right. It is a chilling exercise in futility.

Dean Poling is a former editor with The Valdosta Daily Times and The Tifton Gazette.