Date: 8/14/2010
"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." ~ First Amendment, Constitution of The United States of America
Commentary - Although our rights to "free expression" are guaranteed under the First Amendment and although we are protected from abusive laws that might otherwise be enacted by the U.S. Congress, state legislatures or local government authorities, our rights to "free expression" will, it seems, always be threatened by those individuals and groups who would seek through means other than the establishment of laws, statutes or ordinances to infringe upon our right to worship as we please, to silence us from expressing our viewpoints, to discourage political dissent and to strip us of effective means to redress grievances with our local, state and federal governments. Challenges to our First Amendment "free expression" rights are most likely to manifest themselve in the form of direct threats, subtle intimidation, lawsuits or threatened lawsuits alleging libel, copyright infringement, religious discrimination, etc., economic pressure in the form of boycotts and negative publicity against our enterprises, improper use of law enforcement agencies to file bogus or frivolous complaints for the purpose of harassment and intimidation and so on and so on. Basically I call these kind of "challenges" to our First Amendment "free expression" rights exactly what they are ....... BULLYING! In order to protect our First Amendment "free expression" rights, we will ALL have to be willing and able to stand up to these BULLIES! We will have to stand vigilant against those who would seek to take away our rights of "free expression" by forcing our conformity with their wishes whatever they may be!
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