First Amendment

I had not made a blog entry in quite a while for the usual reasons; life, work... that kind of stuff. But, it was probably providence for me that my entry for the First Amendment would occur after this past week.

1st Amendment as listed in the Bill of Rights to the Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting the 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."

My intent is to hit each portion of the amendment and explain it from my perspective based on my education, personal study and attempts at being objective. I am by no means a Constitutional Law prof but I'm no slouch either. Besides, most of the Con-Law Profs I have met are too much the devil's advocate. I have yet to meet one that approaches any of the amendments without a personal agenda. Not that I don't have an agenda but I do make every effort to prevent it from coming into my blog entries. The reason for that is easy. I do this mostly for me. Some people have the dillusions that there are tons of people who couldn't thrive without their regular injections of intellect from their chosen blogger. For me, it's cathartic. So, it would do me no favors to just spew whatever entered my head.

Enough tangents.

"Congress shall make no law..."

I don't think that needs any review. It basically says that the following is none of the Government's business.

"... respecting the establishment of religion..."

The government has no say in anything that has to do with the individual expression of faith or religious practice.

"...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

Individual Americans have the inalienable right to express their faith in whatever they have faith in, whether it be a God or a piece of fruit.

This one they've been ignoring on a regular basis. Basically they pass legislation prohibiting certain religious practices or exercises based on the notion that I've stated before. Our freedoms are extenisve provided they don't infringe upon the freedoms of others. The idea for the past couple of decades have been that certain exercises of religoius belief make people uncomfortable and therfor infringe on the peace and dignity of others. If that's the case then you'd think they would prohibit or censor certain other activities: books, art, plays, movies, etc. Not that the government isn't in some way and I'm sure it will get worse.

Don't worry, I'm not going to enter a religious discussion. But, not all religions are having legislation passed to curtail their exercise, just the Christian ones. Not that they aren't starting to look at the Islamic population similar to the way we appraised our Japanese descendent population during World War 2.

"...or abridging the freedom of speech..."

All of the topics in the first amendment are related. They have to do with the expression of ideals on an intellectual level. Our ability to speak is hwo we mostly communicate with each other. It's not the only form of expression, it doesn't always do a great job of completely revealing who we are as we would wish to be. But, it is important. It's especially important in our form of Constitutional Republic. Representative Democracy is a nice way of putting soemone we elect making decisions for us.

I hate that.

"... or of the press..."

The press is supposed to represent a portion of our population who have chosen to take up the torch of gathering and distributing information. In doing this they are in a position to collect information on those we entrust with governing us. Because of this, it is their responsibility to inform us as to the Government's actions and exposing actions that are harmful or potentially harmful to our interests. In this, they are an abyssmal failure.

Unfortunately, our press have chosen sides. They have chosen to entertain over enlighten. They have chosen to pursue their own agendas instead of the collective agenda to remain truely objective to give individual Americans the information they need to make their own decisions. Our press now take it upon themselves to provide us information that will "guide" our decisions. Inflammatory rhetoric to impassion a predictable response. I'm not drawing lines or making exceptions either, FOX News is just as guilty of it as CNN or anyone else.

I hate that.

"...or the right of the people peacably to assemble..."

Now, THIS one is topical. Apparently, leftists are the only types allowed to gather together to address grievences. As some of our pop-culture symbols have taken to expressing in one way or another, us average Americans are incapable of thought and need to be led to the well AND taught how to drink. The so-called "progressives" feel like they are perfectly justified in having a demonstration about drugs, military services, medical research, whatever... but, let an average person walk out and decry the "Golden Child' and his cronies and suddenly there's a problem. Hypocrits.

The last week or so has actually been good at exposing several things. It has impassioned average Americans to express themselves vocally and anounce their displeasure at plans for their lives that they apparently no longer feel they have a say in. And, more importantly, it has taken the veil off of what the mainstream press is really all about.

This, I love.

"... and to petition the Government for a redress of grievences..."

Considering that the Government, ALL Governments (Local, State, AND Federal) are supposed to be "of the People, by the People and for the People", they sure as shit don't act like it anymore. They bring themselves off as feeling like they are above the rest of us, more important in some way. Good luck getting your Congressman / Congresswoman / Congressperson on the phone much less trying to get anything other than a form letter written by an aide who then stamps the persons signature on it.

You might however get an opportunity to address Congress, not that more than a handful would be around to hear it. Most of them will be across the street on the phones setting up fund-raising junkets.

Ladies and Gentlemen, our shit is broke. But, like I said previously, it's not technically the system that's broke but the people involved in it. The new "Counter-Culture" is our own elected representatives.

Peachy.

PS: I know there are tons of mispellings and typoes. I apologize.