Our First Amendment Rights

Have you ever taken the time to read our Constitution and clearly understand it? Not many people have they just depend on the government to do what they believe is best for this country. The Preamble is what most of us remember when we first think about the Constitution: 

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It then goes on to list Article’s I through VII and then we have our Amendments I through XXVII. Today I will like to talk about the First Amendment since it has been in the media a lot lately. The First Amendment is Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition. This Amendment was passed by Congress on September 25^th, 1789 and ratified on December 15, 1791.

“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 to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

As you can see the First Amendment protects several of our basic liberties and has been open to interpretation by many over the years often being heard in court case after court case to try and define the limits of these liberties. These arguments continue even today so many years after its being passed into law by Congress.

In freedom of religion there are two clauses to this part of the amendment with the first being the “establishment of religion” which, to me, is simple enough to explain. This clause prohibits the government from establishing an official church. Then there is the “free exercise” clause which addresses our right to worship as we please.

When I was a young girl we used to start the day in public school with the flag salute and then a morning prayer. Somewhere along the line someone got upset because prayer was being said in a public school setting and took it to court. I was confused when we were no longer allowed to pray in school but we were told it was because our Constitution says we need to maintain a “separation of church and state.” My father explained that meant the since the school was public and run by the government we were not allowed to pray. His simple explanation for what really was not the truth because you see nowhere in the First Amendment are the words “separation of church and state” as a matter of fact it appears nowhere in the Constitution.

When Thomas Jefferson was President back in 1802 he gave his opinion in writing about what he believed this First Amendment clause meant in which he said “it was designed to build a wall of separation between Church and State.” So from that, court cases have been built rejecting prayer in public schools, no government aid to parochial schools, the banning of polygamy, the restriction of poisonous snakes and drugs in religious rites, and limiting the right to decline medical care for religious purposes.

Now we have a group of people who practice a particular religion who are insisting on a place to pray while in school and at work. In the news recently there has been talk of schools allowing classrooms to be set aside for Muslims to pray. Although school officials will tell you it is for all denominations we know this is not true for obvious reasons. One being a Christian walks into the same room at the time of Muslim prayer what would the reaction be? The student being Christian does not take off his or her shoes and sits next to a Muslim student of the opposite gender how is this going to play out? Not good and we all know it.

We are not asking people to give up their culture but in the past immigrants have assimilated to the American way of doing things, to be American, after all that is why they supposedly came here. If we allow groups to come in and force their changes on our society then we are no longer the America we once were and are becoming the country they came from. What sense does that make? It was ruled no prayer in public schools back in 1962 by the United States Supreme Court. I honestly don’t care what God you pray to but I do care about the laws of this land and no prayer in schools includes Muslims. Any school that allows it should lose their funding, plain and simple.

You see the law says no school officials can impose prayer, organize prayer events, or turn a school auditorium into a local church for religious celebrations. I would think setting a room aside is doing just that. Of course I am not a Supreme Court Justice so I am not qualified to make that call. Students do have the right, since they are not government, to openly pray and share their faith in a public school but the setting of a room aside for prayer is not under the authority of a student therefor the school district is breaking the law.

One of the biggest debates in the news media today is our right to free speech and its limits. What amazes me is during World War I there was an antiwar activist who was sending out propaganda leaflets to try to persuade draftees to ignore their draft notices. It went before the court at which time it was decided if an individual were a “clear and present danger” to the United States security then they were not protected under free speech. I would say leaking top secret information to the press is a “clear and present danger” to United States security, wouldn’t you?

With the changing of time what is acceptable to people as free speech has changed. What was considered obscene back in the day is now considered acceptable. Pure speech is the verbal expression of thoughts and opinions before a voluntary audience. It is the communication of ideas either written or spoken words or through conduct limited in a form to that necessary to convey the idea.

Next covered under free speech is speech-plus which involves actions, such as demonstration or protesting, as well as the use of words. Since there is a very good possibility, while exercising your right to speech-plus, there could become confrontation it is not as strictly protected as pure speech. Our courts have ruled demonstrators may not obstruct traffic, endanger the public safety, or trespass illegally. Funny but lately that is exactly what they have been allowed to do, at least under the last administration. Rioting in the streets never solves anything it only damages those around you.

Now we have symbolic speech which technically involves no speech at all. What it actually is, is forms of freedom of expression. Symbolic speech is highly controversial and in some cases the courts have ruled it beyond the limits of free speech. Some examples would be wearing a black armband in school or burning a draft card and unfortunately burning the American Flag.

As for the press many of the same freedom of speech principles apply however the courts have ruled the government cannot censor the information before it is written and published unless there is a threat to national security.

Over the past few months we have seen the Conservatives freedom of speech jeopardized by protesters who are rioting on campus and in the streets causing danger to those around them just to silence a person who has been invited to speak that they don’t agree with. So what does this tell you? No one is enforcing the rules and the big mouths are trying to take our rights away by stomping their feet and causing problems. The establishment would rather not have someone speak as opposed to having thousands and in some cases millions of dollars of damage done. Perhaps more people need to be arrested and less people need to be silenced in order to enforce our freedom of speech. Fighting nasty with nasty isn’t going to work it only brings about more chaos and fighting. We as a nation have to start using our intelligence and our laws in our favor and see to it justice is upheld for all groups not just for the chosen few or the ones who scream the loudest.

The final part of the First Amendment is the Freedom of Assembly and Petition. What this means is there has to be a balance with other people’s rights so if your right to assemble disrupts public order, traffic flow, or the freedom to move about doing the normal everyday business or disrupts others peace and quiet then you are not following the law. Usually a group applies for a permit to assemble and as long as the government can control the situation and prevent disruptions the permit is granted.

In today’s society we push this to the limits. Protests are turning into riots in the streets, people are being accosted because of their belief either in religion, or politics, and still others are being attacked because of their race. Hate speech has become the norm and so many spew it under the false assumption they have a right to free speech and can say whatever they so well choose.

As a proud American I am calling on all Americans to stand up for your rights and when you see them blatantly violated then call for them to be enforced by our government. Today I only covered a small portion of our Constitution but I will be doing more. What we need to remember as human beings is fighting isn’t always the answer, at least not always using our fists or some weapon. We can fight and win a battle just as easy in a court of law and see to it the law is carried out. If we unite together, join together in stronger numbers, we will succeed in making America what it once was and that would be “Making America Great Again.” What can I say, it’s a great slogan.

May God Bless America and give us the strength to stand united