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From: Gregory Alan Bolcer <gbolcer@endeavors.com>
Subject: Re: A moment of silence for the First Amendment (fwd)
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Michael wrote:
> 
> http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/20020905brian5.asp


I thought this nekkid URL was going to be about the
infringement of 1st amendment rights for broadcasters
and proposed campaign finanice restrictions preventing them
from making money on advertisements that are deemed
thinly veiled campaign contributions by some arbitrary
government board.  As it was posted to "discussion" I
thought there'd be some.

Instead it's a Post-Gazette column by Brian O'Neill
lamenting the fact that some people know how to
fill out a permit so that they can take advantage
of their right to peaceable assembly.  Obviously
he's poking fun at the idea that specific groups
get specific "zones" and that it's not up to the
police to decide what messages and signs get put into
what zones to most expediently keep order.  

The problem is that politics have gotten so muddied
nowadays, that shouting down and unpeaceably disrupting
political rallies that you don't agree with has become
common practice.  The courts have constantly ruled
that there are some restrictions on the first amendment.
They teach you that your very first year of law school.

I think that given the information as laid out by the story,
Mr. O'Neill has confused free speech with action.  Free
speech or even protected speech as practiced by almost 
every American seems to involve the ability to communicate
an idea to an unknown audience.  Action involves directing
a specific comment to a specific well-defined individual or audience
that has immediate, harmful, and sometimes physical 
effects that is easily forseeable by any reasonable person. 

I think Bill Neel of Butler needs to go back to school
as obviously he must have been sleeping in his civics
class or else they didn't teach civics in mini-guantanamo, OH
65 years ago.

Greg


