Facebook's imbroglio--Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before Congress 4-10 and 4-11 2018 Part one of two parts Johns Hopkins and Fairfield Universities Upfront, I’m a non-practicing Protestant who graduated almost a half century ago from a prominent Jesuit University with an MA in Corporate & Political Communications. When many of my Facebook and Disqus opinion Internet postings purportedly were declined/censored because they were deemed to be overly controversial, I erroneously thought ethnocentrically that I was probably the proverbial Lone Ranger. Now that Diamond and Silk and others have come forward, however, I now realize that it has been a concerted effort by the foregoing entities to especially squelch conservative free speech. Lamentably, “Free Speech” is evidently under attack. Heretofore, I’ve been a justifiable constructive critic of many of the Pope Francis’ left leaning pronouncements, but I do concur with the following: Why? Pope Francis, e.g., has stressed the pre-eminence of dialogue in many of his writings. “Do not be afraid to set out on that ‘exodus’ which is necessary for all authentic dialogue. Otherwise, we fail to understand the thinking of others,” he said in 2015. What could be more essential to the mission of a democracy/republic than the unflinching commitment to a free exchange of ideas? We’re a global community now and openness to dialogue—and patience with one another—is seemingly more critical than it has ever been. Fred Harden III aka “GreyHairandGreyMatter”