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The First Amendment of the Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law… prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” Here in the 21st century, many US citizens seem to be forgetting these most basic and important rights given to us by our forefathers through the constitution.
A recent example which did not receive attention from any major media outlets was the arrest of John Bush at the University of Texas at Austin.
Bush, a libertarian activist, was protesting the wars in the Middle East while President Obama spoke at the same university. A quick search on YouTube will yield several results depicting Mr. Bush and around 50 other followers walking up and down the sidewalk holding signs declaring, “A trillion dollars a year, Barack Obama’s war” and “End Barack Obama’s war murdering innocent civilians in Pakistan.”
A university official eventually asked the protestors to leave school property and directed them to a public sidewalk just outside of campus grounds. After refusing to leave, Bush was eventually arrested shouting, “Tell me what a police state looks like!”
Bush would later be charged for trespassing, but who has ever heard of trespassing on public property? Regardless of whether the University of Texas or anyone else agrees with his viewpoint, Bush was well within his rights to voice it on public property.
UT is indeed public domain—not the property of the school president or any other official and therefore laws, which bar such speech, are in clear contradiction with the Constitution.
The above is a single example taken from a plethora of others. A much larger trespass on the rights of citizens are so-called “free speech zones,” which became more prominent during George W. Bush’s presidency. Free speech zones are portions of college campuses, including those campuses that are owned by the public through tax funding, that school officials deem appropriate for protests.
In other words, school officials are stating that free speech exists only in certain areas on their campuses, a blatant transgression of the First Amendment.
The good news here is that some universities are caving under the pressure of lawsuits and protests involving students and free speech organizations. San Francisco State University recently removed their free speech zones, which limited protests to locations deemed as “public forum areas.” Pamphlets and fliers were only allowed to be dispersed from protesters if they were standing in a specific area designated by blue lines drawn on the pavement.
I have to wonder how anyone who has read the First Amendment, particularly the phrases which prohibit abridging one’s right to peaceable public assembly and free speech, could ever consider such abhorrent ideas like free speech zones lawful or even preferable.
Let’s think about freedom of speech on a local level. The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and supporters fly the pride flag every year on the mall during “Coming Out Week”. Should they be barred from doing so? What about when students were protesting the academic cuts? Should they have been limited to protesting in Aroostook parking lot on the far edge of campus where only few travel? That defeats the entire purpose of a protest. Limitations of free speech even on a local level are disturbing. I’d certainly think that national limitations on such a fundamental right would be at least worrisome.
It is time for Americans to wake up and take notice of their rights and how they’re being taken away. Do we really want to live in a country where the “higher-ups” decide what is appropriate to say and where it is appropriate to say it?
Our country was built on vastly different principles, principles that we should be sticking to in order to protect the well-being of all citizens. I certainly hope that our rights will not be limited much further, even though we are already about one-quarter of the way down a slippery slope.
Bangor Daily News