First Amendment

By far the amendment that has been the center of some of the most controversial legal battles in our country, and one that, in it's very simplistic wording, covers SO much.

It's a very interesting law, because of where it pops up when you aren't expecting it. It truly does cover everyone equally, and, though still open to interpretation by a court, somehow consistently gets defended.

I've had discussions about a person's first amendment right with many people over the years, usually when a court rules in some way which a person hasn't considered or thinks that we've gone "too far" with the first amendment. Many examples over the years that I've personally seen are things like someone wearing a t-shirt expressing their beliefs or views, which was deemed "inappropriate" by a school teacher or principal, and in many cases, a court ruled otherwise.

It's a law that we all have our own vision of I think - when we think of it in terms of comparing with history and other countries, we see how obvious its importance is. Yet, when it defends someone or something expressing something that we don't like, we bristle. That may be someone who opposes your religious or political beliefs, it may be nude art or pornography, or it may be someone protesting the funeral of one of our fallen military veterans, as was the case in the article I read this morning. For those of you not familiar with the Fred Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas (and I use the word "church" loosely because he's not recognized by any denomination), this is a group of people who have, for years, spread a message of hate across our country, in the name of God - so much so that even the most conservative religious groups don't want to have anything to do with this church. More recently, they have taken to protesting the funerals of soldiers who have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan - their reasoning being that God is punishing us and these soliders for how far we as a country have fallen away from God (that is putting it nicely, their words are much harsher - I won't repeat them here).

Now, protesting at a funeral of a fallen soldier, someone who gave his or her life defending our country, in the name of God no less, to me is one of the most horrible things a person could do. It disgusts me to think about what kind of a person would do such a thing, and do it many times. I'd even hate to admit it but I wish these people didn't exist - their message of hate is lots of what I believe is wrong with the world.

BUT...even as I read this article, and how the lawsuit brought against them by one of the fathers of the soldiers whose funeral was protested is making its way to the Supreme Court, I have to step back and look at the big picture. In my mind, the family of the soldier is right, and I hope that on some other grounds they get come sort of retribution for what the Phelps family did to them. But I also believe the court has to uphold the Phelps' first amendment right. It's horrible, awful, and I wouldn't even classify them as human beings for what they say and do, but if the court rules that they have "gone too far" and there really is a limit on the first amendment, then that's the beginning of the end. They rule against one person's right to free speech, they can rule against anyone. This quote by Captain Picard from "Star Trek: First Contact" sums it up nicely:

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied -- chains us all irrevocably."

and another movie that I have always loved, "The American President" (why can't we have a president like Michael Douglas was in this movie) says it equally well:

"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. "