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.
All people in this country, regardless of citizenship, have the right to practice or not to practice a religion, to publish opinions and engage in dialog regarding ideas, and to assemble in protest to a position held by the government. To disallow any dialog is to do harm to the most basic right from which all civil rights derive: the right to public expression of deviation from a community’s norm.
In the time following the attack on the World Trade Center, I was living on my boat at the marina in Ventura. One of the live-aboards put a flag on the stern of his vessel and burned his anchor lights in honor of the dead. Soon, the night was aglow with lights from docked vessels. I chose not to do this. I have always been shy to display a flag – I don’t even own one – preferring instead to honor the dead in my own manner. One night I heard a knock on the hull of my boat. Seven or eight of my dockmates were demanding to know why I chose not to fly my flag or burn my lights. I responded that I my grief was personal and asked why this was a concern of theirs. They responded that they were unsure about my “Un-American” attitude. I responded that the most American right is the right to dissent and that I choose to exercise that right.
Yesterday I read that Cindy Sheehan’s camp was destroyed by a Texan in an SUV, driving over the crosses with the names of the dead from this illegal war in Iraq. The crosses bore names of young people that have died in this ill-begotten belligerence. Now I ask, who shows greater disrespect for the soldiers whose lives have been lost: a grieving mother that asks a legitimate question about the causes of this war or a coward in an SUV that desecrates the memories of the fallen by bullying a woman whose only “crime” is to dissent?
Ms. Sheehan is moving. She has had shotgun blasts by the denizens of Crawford to signal their displeasure. She has been menaced by a vehicle that could, as easily, have killed her. She has faced a town seeking to enact laws intended to prohibit her from exercising her right to peaceably assemble in a public place. Now she has had to move.
And where was Mr. Bush, who is sworn to uphold and protect the Constitution that defines these rights? Where was his voice in calling for an end to the harassment of a citizen exercising her rights as an American?
Ah, but I am only a fool…
