I will admit that I hadn’t given much thought to free speech before I began dating a journalist.

As a teacher, I understood the importance of free public education; after all, a healthy democracy depends on a population that can read and think critically. I have always understood that one way down deep in my bones.

But I somehow took for granted the importance of free speech and a free press.

It really didn’t occur to me that democracy actually rests upon a population that is both capable of critical thought and exposed to the facts.

No facts available? No democracy available.

It’s a pretty simple formula, really.

As soon as I understood that, I started paying more attention to freedom of speech and the ability of the press to do its job, which is at least partly to hold leaders and government entities accountable for their action – or, in some cases, inaction.

I began to see that the framers were onto something when they guaranteed free speech in the Bill of Rights.

But I had no idea that one day a hero for free speech would emerge. Or that he would be…Afroman?

If you’re unfamiliar, Afroman is a rapper. Before this week, the only song I knew of his was the 2000 hit, “Because I Got High.”
I’ll leave it to you to decide the usual content of his lyrics.

But then the local police force in his hometown issued a warrant that accused him of narcotics possession (well, duh) and kidnapping (wait, what?).

They broke the gate to his home, kicked in his door and found nothing. The basement in which he was supposedly holding prisoners was not only devoid of humans but also nonexistent entirely.

When he asked the officers if they were going to repair what they broke, they laughed at him.

So he made reparations himself, posting a series of parody videos about the officers who searched his house.

Was that nice? No. It wasn’t.

But it was legal. It was free speech, protected by the Constitution of the United States.

Afroman’s raps should be allowed in the same way (and for the same reason) Jonathan Swift was allowed to print “A Modest Proposal,” in which he used parody to critique the attitude of the rich toward the poor.

Sometimes humor is the best medicine. And sometimes humor is the only medicine.

What does any of that have to do with cooking, you ask? Well, because Afroman made lemon pound cake a central feature of one of his parody songs. (It’s a long story.)

So in honor of that, I decided to make a lemon pound cake at home. Unfortunately, most of the recipes I found in my collection of church cookbooks called for lemon flavoring.

I don’t keep lemon flavoring on hand because I prefer actual lemon instead. I’ve found that when it comes to flavorings – just like love, butter and good journalism – there is no substitute for the real thing.

So the recipe below is my mom’s pound cake recipe, punched up with lemon juice and zest.

LEMON CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE

Ingredients:
3 c. sugar
1 (8 oz.) brick cream cheese, room temperature
1 c. butter (2 sticks)
½ c. margarine or butter shortening
6 eggs
3 c. cake flour
4 Tbsp. lemon juice (about 2 lemons’ worth)
Zest of 2 lemons

Directions:
■ Grease and flour a tube or Bundt pan or two loaf pans.
■ Preheat oven to 350 for a shiny pan or 325 degrees for a dark or nonstick pan.
■ Cream together sugar, cream cheese, butter and margarine or shortening. Decrease speed and add eggs, one at a time. Beat between each egg. Add flour and beat on low speed only until a few streaks of flour remain.
■ Remove from mixer. Add lemon juice and zest and finish mixing by hand.
■ Pour into prepared pan(s).
■ Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes for a tube or Bundt pan. (Loaf pans may take less time; check at 1 hour.) A toothpick or knife inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean. Do not open the oven until time has elapsed.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.