Freedom of speech. Just watch what you say!
Saturday, September 12th, 2009Freedom of speech has been turned into freedom of approved patriotic speech. The ACLU is actually having to sue the city of Pittsburgh, and the U.S. Secret service to allow protesters to demonstrate at the upcoming G20 summit to be held September 24 and 25.
“After a month of negotiation with the city and the Secret Service, we have come to an impasse and today we filed a lawsuit in the US district court,” said Witold Walczak, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)…
…Jules Lobel of the Center for Constitutional Rights offered support for the filing.
“The first amendment prohibits the government from deciding to allow or not certain people to speak whether they have different messages. The government can’t dictate who speaks their message.”
The First amendment has been killed by the US Patriot act. The term patriot is quite reminiscent of the term comrade. The similarities to the Aftermath of 9/11 and the rise of the Nazi’s, or any totalitarian regime in history, to power is shocking. Those open minded enough to see it hidden behind the mask of “Patriotism” are considered enemies or worse enemy combatants.
The rights of the people to peacefully assemble have been compromised. The constitution has been subverted in a rouse to keep us “safe”. When freedoms are allowed to be subverted in the name of safety, we all lose! As Douglas Adams wrote
Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word ’safe’ that I wasn’t previously aware of.
For those Constitutionally illiterate, here is the First amendment to the Constitution…
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.