1984

No, not the Van Hallen album and certainly no reason to "Jump". I am referring to the book most of us read in high school written by George Orwell. (Ironically I may have actually read the book in 1984.) The fictional tale is of a future world ruled by the totalitarian government of Oceania, that at the time seemed to be a little silly to me. After all we live in the land of freedom, the good ole USA. In the time since, I have grown up and watched many disturbing trends and also infringements of our Constitutional rights. Police checkpoints, cameras on top of traffic lights, and Government wiretaps give me the real sense that "big brother" is watching. I was once stopped by a police officer only for him to ask me "where are you going". With the Olympic Torch arriving yesterday in San Francisco, my thoughts again turned to our rights, as well as the struggle in Tibet. The City is setting up "Free Speech Zones", where officials plan to herd any protesters behind barricades away from the Torch relays. The use by authorities of "Free Speech Zones" around important events has been increasing rapidly in the last decade. Silly me, I always thought of my Country as one big Free Speech Zone. "Free Speech Zone" sounds disturbingly like a euphemism for "silence you by putting you far out of the way behind a wall zone." Here is how our Founding Fathers saw it " 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. " They thought it was an important enough to make it the First Amendment. While I understand the need for security in the age we live in, I also recognize that as a free society we cannot have perfect of invasive security. These are the risks that a free society must accept to preserve that freedom. In my lifetime, I have seen a trend towards the erosion of our liberties that has me considering Orwell's "thought police". In my recent article "Champion Of The Second Amendment" , I examine the clear language of The Constitution as it pertains to the rights concerning firearms. After these recent examinations of our Constitution, I am left with only one question. What part of "shall not be infringed" or "right of the people peaceably to assemble" do we all seem to not understand?