Please crank up your imagination a notch or two, if you will, and try to envision this scene: It's a hot day in 1789 in Philadelphia and some of the Founding Fathers — John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson — are gathered at the Liberty Bell Pub & Tavern, each sipping a second pint of Continental Ale.

Adams: Well, Tom, you're the one who thinks we need this Bill of Rights — whatever that may be — so where do we start?

Jefferson: First must come the right of freedom of speech.

Hamilton: For everybody? Surely, not for women, too.

Franklin: Oh, we'll let them speak, all right — we just won't let them vote.

They all bang their ale mugs on the table in unanimous agreement.

Adams: So, any man can climb up on a soapbox in any public square, and say whatever he wants to say?

Hamilton: What if what he wants to say are dirty words?

Adams: Surely, no authentic gentleman would want to do that.

Franklin: But we're not limiting freedom of speech to authentic gentlemen, are we?

Jefferson: No, we're not — and we're not limiting it to just one soapbox in just one public square, either. Try to imagine someone really wealthy...

Franklin: You mean like us.

Jefferson: ... And he hires 100 men to get up on 100 soapboxes in 100 public squares all over the country — spouting the same opinion.

Hamilton: Mercy! And they might all be spouting obscenity?

Adams: Surely, no Supreme Court would permit obscenity under the guise of freedom of speech.

Franklin: How do we know what a future Supreme Court will do? We did give the justices the last word on just about everything, didn't we?

Adams: Yes and, surely, men sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court will never sanction obscenity in any form.

Franklin: But one man's obscenity is another man's art. We all enjoy viewing beautiful naked women, don't we? — and pictures of beautiful naked women.

Hamilton: In art, Ben, I believe they're called nude — not naked.

Franklin: Whatever they're called, in the far-off unforeseeable future, suppose that viewing pictures of unclothed women becomes such a common practice — even in public — that Congress feels it must be regulated?

Jefferson: Some of the most famous paintings in history have been of nude women. Surely, the Supreme Court wouldn't permit Congress to ban works of art.

Adams: Are you suggesting that gentlemen justices would equate nudity with free speech?

Jefferson: We can't possibly imagine what standards future generations might set.

Hamilton: Just as they won't be able to imagine the standards set in our time.

Franklin: Let's go back to 100 men on 100 soapboxes. Suppose that instead of relying on soapboxes, this wealthy man owns a newspaper and he disseminates his views and what he considers art that way.

Hamilton: Are we really willing to extend freedom of speech to newspapers?

Jefferson: Yes, even to newspapers and even to the obscenities that some men consider art.

Adams: Surely, Congress will put some limit on such skullduggery.

Franklin: Don't bet on that, John. And let's take this one giant step further: In some distant future, what if some scientific madman invents a means to communicate with every person in this country — all at the same time?

Adams: Oh, Ben, you do come up with the silliest ideas.

Jefferson: No, suppose that really happens. Remember, hardly anyone could read until Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440. Now, almost everyone does.

Franklin: Yes, even women do.

Hamilton: Who knows what inventions the future may hold in store 300 years from now? Would freedom of speech apply to this new means of instant mass communication?

Jefferson: It must and now we've gone way beyond 100 soapboxes.

Franklin: Oh, yes. Now each citizen can have exactly as much freedom of speech as he can afford, including freedom to offend other people.

Adams: Ben, you're such a worry wart. You must have more faith in human beings.

Franklin: The trouble is, they're all too human.

Hamilton: Do us all a favor, Ben — drink your ale and go fly a kite.

Footnote: Since the Founding Fathers shared a pint of ale in 1789, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that almost all art, including some that offends most Americans, is a form of free speech protected by the Bill of Rights.

— Chuck Thomas is a Star columnist whose column appears on the Opinion pages each Saturday. His e-mail address is star4cthomas@earthlink.net.