Free Speech: Ours to Lose

In a Globe & Mail Op-Ed piece about the dearth of free speech in Bangladesh, Omer Aziz makes this depressing observation:

Free speech is something that is taken for granted in the West, so much so that 200 writers could boycott a PEN award for Charlie Hebdo that was given in defence of the very speech that got its editors killed.

Taking it for granted is the best way to lose it. Or hasn't Aziz--and, for that matter, the 200 PEN boycotters--ever heard that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty"?
 
In other words, it you don't make the effort to cherish and protect your free speech, you may as well bid it adieu.