"The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances."
In my own not so humble opinion, this is the most important bits of wording ever written because it gives all of us the right to say and believe what we think is right without fear of persecution.
Now onto the subject that prompted this particular blog. One of my best friends and a far better writer than me called last night to fill me in on the details of a truly amazing event. He entrusted me with writing a blog telling the story and letting people know about the dangers of telling the truth. I really don't think that I am better suited for this than him, but here goes.
My friend runs a local newspaper and is one of it's chief reporters. The other day, early in the morning, he received a phone call from local law enforcement that something big was about to happen. When he arrived at the headquarters, an impressive list of whos who of law enforcement were waiting including Secret Service and GBI officials.
Benjamin rode along as these powerful figures went to serve various warrants. The first house they visited, a woman was served with 99! warrants for identity theft. Let me repeat that just in case you missed the first line. NINETY NINE! She was handcuffed and taken away by the officers. My friend took pictures of the incident which is his job.
After finishing the warrant rounds, Benjy called his office and told them to "Stop the presses." He rushed back to his office, wrote the story and published the picture. Hours later, the paper was published and a very short time later, he received a phone call. The caller identified himself as the son of the woman who had been arrested for the 99 counts. He proceeded to tell Ben that he didn't have the right to publish these pictures of his mother. Of course, Ben pointed out that he did (See above note about 1st Amendment rights) The caller than proceeded to say that "He had something for You and the 1st Amendment"
Keep in mind here that being arrested does not make you guilty. Having your picture in the paper being arrested doesn't make you guilty. No matter what a lot of people seem to think, the only time you are proven guilty of a crime is when you are tried by a jury of your peers and found to be so. Even then, the conviction can be overturned and your innocence restored. Ben didn't accuse the woman of anything or imply that she was guilty. He simply reported the fact of her arrest.
(Let me make another aside about general stupidity. Threats against a person are one thing since you can actually physically assault a person. However the 1st Amendment, 2nd, 3rd etc cannot be physically assaulted unless you try to burn the actual document. They are a concept, an idea and a sense of spirit.)
Since I have known Ben for a very long time I can tell you right now threatening him is about as safe as tap dancing in a land mine. He doesn't get scared and he doesn't back down. As a journalist, he firmly believes in telling the truth no matter what. He has been this way for as long as I have known him. Hells in college, he was known as the heaviest armed man in the state.
The reason I mention that is because what happened next is very typical of that. Whereas many people would have hidden in their homes or offices worried that some angry individual was coming after them, Ben drove home, opened up his well stocked gun safe, pulled out a Mossberg 500 shotgun and slung it across his back. He then proceeded to take a ride through town on his motorcycle. (Note he did call the law enforcement people to tell them of the threat and to tell them of his show of force before doing so.)
Now a lot of people would say that Ben was over reacting. They would imply that he was asking for trouble by riding through town with a gun. They might say that Ben should just keep quiet and let the police handle the situation. Ben did exactly that by informing the police of the situation. He didn't find out who the guy was and where he lived (Child's play for him) and go beat the crap out of him. All he did was show that he would not be intimidated by some dipstick who was too cowardly to confront him face to face.
http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/datasets/journalists-killed-by-country-since--3/versions/1 is an excellent website that tracks the number of journalists killed while doing their job. It shows why no journalist should ever take lightly a threat against their lives. For the most part (Ignoring Faux News right now) reporters struggle everyday to drag the truth out of the darkness kicking and screaming whether people like it or not and a lot of very powerful people don't like it. Sometimes these brave men and women pay for this effort with their lives.
Our freedoms are never free and standing up for them has never been safe. All of the people who fight to do this (Military, Police, Journalists etc) deserve our undying gratitude for having the courage to brave the "slings and arrows" (Bullets, hand grenades) to protect them. The next time you read a story in your local paper that exposes crime, graft and corruption please take a moment to say thank you for the people that made it possible.
Very well said. Very well. You did it better' I could have.
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