The knock came on your front door in the middle of the night. Before you could get your wits about you and answer it, they came crashing through, filling your living room with state and federal police. Your hands and arms were jerked behind you, and you were cuffed and hustled off to magistrate court, open at this hour to welcome you. And then, it was off to jail to join your fellow demonstrators.
The charges: sedition and insurrection.
Silly you. You actually thought the five rights enumerated in the First Amendment meant what they said.
Nearly every schoolchild knows that the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution are called the Bill of Rights. But what are those rights? It is vanishingly rare for most of us to name all the rights contained in those 10 amendments. Worse, too many folks can’t even name the five rights enumerated in the First Amendment. What are they?
Nearly everyone can get freedom of speech and religion. Many also will get freedom of the press, although too many won’t understand what freedom of the press actually encompasses. What are the other two?
Let’s answer in the form of a question: What’s the difference between the right to assemble and an insurrection? Were the tens of thousands who gathered on the National Mall in Washington on Jan. 6 assembled, as is their right under the First Amendment? Or were they involved in an insurrection? I’m not talking about the smallish group who entered the Capitol and smashed stuff up. I’m talking about the tens of thousands outdoors.
Or let’s put it another way. Annually, tens of thousands of Americans gather on that same Mall to protest abortion, declared a right by the U.S. Supreme Court and, therefore, the law of the land. Is that a gathering permitted by peaceful assembly even if they march on the Capitol, as some do? Or is it an insurrection? Should its leaders be rounded up by the FBI and sentenced to five to 10 years in prison?
Should it be a career-ending mistake to make politically incorrect remarks either in private or publicly? There are more than a couple examples of just this sort of penalty.
Or to get down to specific cases: Is it hate speech to criticize Black Lives Matter — the organization not the statement?
Or try this one. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that burning the U.S. flag is “speech” as understood under the First Amendment. If that is so, then why is displaying the Confederate battle flag considered hate speech?
Now, I’m not in favor of displaying the Confederate battle flag. It truly is a symbol of slavery, America’s original sin. But I’m also not in favor of some other things that are legal.
The beginnings of all this occurred a few years ago, some on college campuses. There were several variations. One was to oppose speakers you didn’t agree with, to have their talks canceled or drive them off the stage if they made it that far. It will not surprise to know that most of the speakers opposed were conservative, sometimes so conservative that even traditional conservatives didn’t agree with them on much.
But to repeat the question: Should such speakers be silenced? Should they be silenced as a matter of law? Or even prosecuted because some majority disagrees with them?
Today, we are entering into yet another level of this concept. That is to punish anyone who expresses opinions deemed unacceptable to some group of people. CEOs of major corporations are being forced to resign for statements made privately, or statements made years ago.
One of our more cherished rights under the Constitution is freedom of speech. However, it is important to point out that this First Amendment freedom only pertains to speech about government, government officials and politics. It does not apply to private affairs nor to private business.
It is why a CEO can be fired for saying something members of his board of directors fear is offensive, something that might encourage a boycott of the business. It is why even tenured professors can lose their jobs if they say something the student body finds politically incorrect. Somehow, under tenure rules, you can’t be fired for advocating the communist overthrow of the U.S. government, but you can be fired for saying something someone thinks is racist.
In another country, it is why doctors in China were arrested for sounding the alarm over the coronavirus. One of them is dead. The other is missing and has been for many months.
Is this where we’re headed in the United States of America?
Reid K. Beveridge has covered politics in Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Delaware and Washington, D.C. He resides in Milton.
